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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 09 2015, @11:36PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 09 2015, @11:36PM (#180903)

    Hint: all the Eurosoeptics (what used to be called Nationalist), from UKIP to FN to Jobbik, are funded by Russia. Russia fears a unified Europe (that doesn't include them in a leading role) more than anything else.

  • (Score: 2) by Yog-Yogguth on Sunday May 10 2015, @03:13PM

    by Yog-Yogguth (1862) Subscriber Badge on Sunday May 10 2015, @03:13PM (#181092) Journal

    And you try to pass such a “hint” to someone who is so-called “far right” (a bit more Pim Fortuyn than Geert Wilders but that's details) and that is also pro-Russian or at least pro-Novorussian and strongly anti-EU and more recently also strongly anti-US? I guess next you'll try to claim no one at all knew Pim Fortuyn was openly gay and had homosexual sex as often as possible, maybe it's too hard to understand that just about no one particularly cares about any of that in western Europe, not even ordinary suckers for big boobs, thin waists, and wide hips like me. It's almost as lame as trying to get people riled up about “anti-gays” in the gayest country in Europe: England, the country where cross-dressing is a Christmas tradition you take your children to watch :D (and yes England is even gayer than the Netherlands, good for them).

    I've been against the EU for over twenty years, and twenty years ago I was a military officer in a NATO country. Well I still am strictly speaking, if I say Browning, Glock, H&K MP3, H&K G3, Rheinmetall MG3, M72 LAW, and Bofors recoilless cannons then someone who knows a little about European (well not Browning obviously, but M72 actually is although the US has a license for production just like Turkey has for the MG3) military small (and not so small) arms might notice that I'm ever so slightly dated :)

    As far as I can tell it's the US (and likely CIA) that's trying to buy themselves friends on the “new right” but they suck at being subtle and don't realize what kind of people they're dealing with so all they're left with are people who incorrectly think it's /not/ obvious that they're on the take. I've called people out on it as you might expect.

    The reason why just about all “new right” political parties are pro-Russian is because all the US and EU anti-Russian propaganda is pure bullshit that doesn't make the slightest sense on any level. The only ones who seem to “believe” in the US government are idiot “journalists”, some NATO brass, politicians etc. I mean god damn its funny that the US doesn't realize what kind of reputation lizards like Carl Bildt and Jens Stoltenberg (NATO Secretary General? Awesome joke) have and the instant alienation of sizable groups of people in Sweden and Norway against anything those creeps support (to people like me —and plenty not like me as well— they're worse than what Tony Blair is to most Brits). So yes of course it's noticeable if a person on the “new right” suddenly somehow supports them.

    --
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