UK 2010 Election

[carl stromberg]

Gordon Brown left his press microphone on when driving off in car after a public walkabout and called an old lady he met a bigot. Good job he did not say anything stronger.

The polls put Labour on around 28%, Conservatives on 34% and the Liberal Democrats on around 30%, so there may be a hung parliament.

There are several CraignotBond candidates standing including FormerBondfan who is standing in the Shetland Islands after we got him a forged UK passport.

[Kristatos]

Gordon Brown left his press microphone on when driving off in car after a public walkabout and called an old lady he met a bigot. Good job he did not say anything stronger.

The polls put Labour on around 28%, Conservatives on 34% and the Liberal Democrats on around 30%, so there may be a hung parliament.

Somebody Tweeted that BIGOT stands for Brown Is Gone On Thursday.

We seem to be entering an era of genuine three-party politics. That's going to have major implications, especially if the Lib Dems manage to push through electoral reform.

[Blowfeld]

UK's Brown hit by poll, media back rivals
Reuters


Britain's opposition Conservative Party leader Cameron, Liberal Democrat leader Clegg and PM Brown debate in Birmingham Reuters – Britain's opposition Conservative Party leader David Cameron (L), Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg …
By Adrian Croft Adrian Croft – Fri Apr 30, 6:19 pm ET

LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's faltering election campaign suffered fresh blows on Friday as support for his Labour Party slid in one new poll and leading newspapers came out in support of his rivals.

Opposition Conservative leader David Cameron's campaign was boosted by viewer polls finding him the winner of a televised debate among party leaders on Thursday night, the last before next Thursday's election.

But the increased support for the Liberal Democrats, traditionally Britain's third party, showed no sign of abating, appearing to leave Britain on course for its first parliament with no overall majority since 1974.

"This election is far from over. We are now entering the most energetic and the most important stage of this campaign ... I'm taking nothing for granted," Cameron said during an upbeat campaign stop at a school in Derby in central England.

A YouGov poll for the Sun newspaper showed the Conservatives leading on 34 percent with Labour and the Lib Dems tied on 28 percent.

But a Harris poll for Saturday's Daily Mail found support for Labour, which has ruled Britain since 1997, falling to just 24 percent. If repeated next Thursday, it would be Labour's worst election showing since 1918, it said.

The poll put the Conservatives on 33 percent and the Lib Dems on 32 percent. Under Britain's electoral system, which is based solely on the vote in individual constituencies, not proportional representation, the Conservatives would be the largest party but short of a majority in parliament.

Bookmakers William Hill said they had cut the odds of the Conservatives winning the most seats to 1/7, or 87 percent, the highest since the election was called.

Two major newspapers turned their backs on Labour.

The Guardian, traditionally a staunch Labour supporter, said it had switched its support to the Lib Dems because it was the best way to bring about electoral reform.

The Times, which backed Labour for the first time at the 2001 election and endorsed them again in 2005, said in its Saturday edition it had returned to backing the Conservatives.

BROWN EXPLAINS GAFFE

Nick Clegg, 43, the Lib Dem leader whose star has soared due to his confident performances against Brown and Cameron in three televised debates, told the Guardian that his party had replaced Labour as the natural home of progressive politics in Britain.

Britain has little experience of "hung parliaments" in which no party has overall control. Many investors fear it could weaken action to tackle Britain's gaping budget deficit, though markets have taken the growing prospect in their stride.

British government bond futures jumped on Friday after snap polls showed Cameron had won the last televised debate.

The most likely "hung parliament" scenario would see the Lib Dems back either the Conservatives or Labour.

In a BBC interview on Friday, Brown, 59, criticized Lib Dem policies and said he would not serve under Clegg.

"I do not want a hung parliament, I want a majority Labour government," Brown said.

Brown's campaign was derailed on Wednesday when he was unwittingly recorded describing voter Gillian Duffy as "a bigoted woman," and was forced to go back and apologize to her under the painful glare of television cameras.

"I have personally paid this heavy price for a mistake that I made," Brown told Saturday's Daily Telegraph.

Brown told the BBC on Friday he had misunderstood Duffy, 65, when she took him to task about immigration. "I thought she was talking about expelling all university students from this country who were foreigners," Brown said.

Surveys suggest that, while many voters are fed up with Brown, they are not sure they can trust Cameron, 43, a slick former public relations executive from a privileged background.

With the wind in his sails after the debate, Cameron tried to build on that trust by launching a "contract with voters" that lists key Conservative policies on cleaning up politics, fostering economic growth and tackling social problems.

Labour drafted in Brown's predecessor as prime minister, Tony Blair, who went out campaigning in London.

The charismatic Blair won a record three successive elections for Labour from 1997. Brown served as Blair's finance minister before taking over as Labour leader in 2007, and is leading the party in a national election for the first time.

(Additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon and Kylie MacLellan; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

[Blowfeld]

Gordon Brown left his press microphone on when driving off in car after a public walkabout and called an old lady he met a bigot. Good job he did not say anything stronger.

The polls put Labour on around 28%, Conservatives on 34% and the Liberal Democrats on around 30%, so there may be a hung parliament.

Somebody Tweeted that BIGOT stands for Brown Is Gone On Thursday.

We seem to be entering an era of genuine three-party politics. That's going to have major implications, especially if the Lib Dems manage to push through electoral reform.

Exciting times.

[Capt. Sir Dominic Flandry]

My prediction is that the Conservatives will have a very small majority.

What are your predictions?

[Kristatos]

My prediction is that the Conservatives will have a very small majority.

What are your predictions?

Colin Bex of the Wessex Regionalists beating David Cameron in Witney. I can dream, can't I?

[Capt. Sir Dominic Flandry]

My prediction is that the Conservatives will have a very small majority.

What are your predictions?

Colin Bex of the Wessex Regionalists beating David Cameron in Witney. I can dream, can't I?

He could hold the balance of power. I always thought Merbyn Kernow and the Wessex Regionalists were mad but regional assemblies are rather popular at the moment and much more sensible than the artificial Euro regions.

[Kristatos]

He could hold the balance of power. I always thought Merbyn Kernow and the Wessex Regionalists were mad but regional assemblies are rather popular at the moment and much more sensible than the artificial Euro regions.

I fear the Prescott experiment has set the cause of regional government back a generation. If I was paranoid, I might think that their regional assemblies were set up to fail. Give people powerless talking shops based around artificial, ahistorical regions that few people identify with and then say "see, regionalism doesn't work".

[The Sweeney]

It's not looking good for Britain right now.

Labour look past it, out of ideas, have squandered far too much money on pointless, expensive quangos, brought in too much PC-correctness, introduced too much of a nanny state, made crime a laughing stock, and made immigration a joke. Brown appears haggared, knackered, worn out. Put him out of his misery.

Clegg looked like a breath of fresh air for politics, but some of his policies seem inexperienced, naive, and has the feeling of sixth form students getting the keys to power with radical, but not practical ideas. I quite like how he comes across (but there again, I liked Blair too, and was taken in by him back in 1997, so what do I know).

Cameron and the Tories do seem the only safe bet for the UK right now. The UK is a mess, and needs some unpopular decisions making to get the country fixed again. I think a new party can only do this, and only someone as right-wing and extreme as the Tories. Tough on crime, tough on immigration, reduce the massive spending, and keeping the pound. The tough times we are in right now requires a party like the Tories to get us out of it. Whatever you think about Cameron, he seems like a strong leader, the most like a Prime Minister, someone who can hold his own on the world stage. Blair could do this too, but Brown couldn't, IMO.

The debt-ridden country is a mess, and now we are in a state where there is no strong government to lead. It saddens me to see this in the country I was brought up in. Who knows where it will end?

Let's look to England winning the World Cup to give us all a boost!!

[carl stromberg]

Result:

Conservatives 305
Labour 258
Liberal Democrats 57
Sinn Fein 5
Green 1
Democratic Unionist 8
Plaid Cymru 3
SDLP 3
Alliance 1
Independent (Northern Ireland unionist) 1

No one has a majority and there are some bitter talks about forming a coalition.



What an exciting election!

Gordon Brown does look awful and I think he has gone mad. He should have stepped down on health grounds before the election. He had his chance to be Labour leader twice but did not stand against John Smith and Tony Blair in the 90's. It was too late for him a his cronies to depose Tony Blair a few years ago.

Which country do you most admire Sweeney? Which country should we follow - for example, Switzerland (outside the EU), China, Australia?

[Capt. Sir Dominic Flandry]

This man has been put in charge of the British economy and is slashing spending: