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posted by CoolHand on Saturday May 09 2015, @06:58AM   Printer-friendly
from the surprised-Brits dept.

BBC News reports that the Conservatives have defied pre-election polls and all the exit polls to win an overall majority in the House of Commons. The race was thought to be much closer than the final results have shown, with many predicting either another coalition government or possibly a minority Conservative government being formed.

The Conservatives made gains in England and Wales and are forecast by the BBC to secure 331 seats in the Commons, giving them a slender majority. Sources say [Labour leader] Ed Miliband is expected to stand down after Labour was all but wiped out by the [Scottish National Party] in Scotland. [Liberal Democrat] leader Nick Clegg has already said he will quit, with his party set to be reduced from 57 to eight MPs. [United Kingdom Independence Party] leader Nigel Farage is also quitting after he failed to win Thanet South, losing by nearly 2,800 votes to the Conservatives.

The Conservatives have taken 331 of the 650 seats available. However, when Sinn Fein's continued boycott of Westminster is taken into account, along with the four seats they current hold, 324 is enough for a practical majority. An overall turnout of 66% is expected, marginally up on the previous general election in 2010.

Shortly after the results of the exit polls were revealed, Lord Ashdown, former leader of the Liberal Democrats, stated in a live interview on the BBC that he would "eat his hat" if the predicted losses for the Liberal Democrats came true. The poll showed the Lib Dems losing 45 seats - in the end they lost 47. Lord Ashdown mentioned shortly after he made the statement that he had received through Twitter ten offers of hats if he didn't have one of his own.

For those of us not familiar with UK politics, what are the views of the Conservatives we should be concerned about (if any)? How will their viewpoints affect the world political stage and/or the technology world?

 
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  • (Score: 2) by hash14 on Saturday May 09 2015, @03:45PM

    by hash14 (1102) on Saturday May 09 2015, @03:45PM (#180777)

    I hate making bold predictions, but Scotland is as good as gone by this point. Their independence vote came down to a hair's breadth thanks to all the last-minute lobbying, concessions and promises from the other major UK parties, and then all of those promises were immediately ignored as soon as they won. So the next time the vote comes around, a lot of those on-the-fence votes are going to swing the other way. If nothing happens between now and then, I'll be very surprised if Scotland doesn't vote for independence by a wide margin.

    Ultimately, I like this. As the UK (led primarily by England) goes more and more off the deep end, their union will fall apart. Scotland will (re)join the EU, and this will put pressure on England and the remainder of the UK to stay in it as well. I don't think the Conservatives can have their cake and eat it too on this. So ultimately, what their choice really boils down to is staying in the EU as the UK, or leaving the EU, breaking up, and then rejoining as separate countries (with possibly England holding out, which will have some rather sharp consequences for them).

    So even though I'm usually a pessimist, I think things will work out for this region in the long haul. Nevertheless, this election has given us a surprising and depressing reminder of how conservative and unenlightened England really is.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 10 2015, @04:42PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 10 2015, @04:42PM (#181110)

    I don't think the Conservatives can have their cake and eat it too on this.

    That's what election fraud is for. It doesn't matter how the people vote if the votes don't get counted, or if the opposition isn't able to vote. That's how they do it in the US at least.