The Results Thread

[Filuwaúrdjan]

In other news, Simon Hughes holds his seat with a reduced majority, his vote fell by 9.8% and Labour rose by 2%. Good old Kirsty, I knew she'd cut the margin nicely. Majority is now only 14.2%, formerly 26.1% I believe.

True. I think that was our best swing v the LD's. If next time round Labour put some resources into it (and pick a good candidate again) I think we can get the bastard.

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Al,

The 45 or so Labour seats lost...were they generally "new labour" MPs? or were they evenly distributed between blair's loyalists and the more leftist elements?

(In other words, with the parliamentary party be more leftist/rightist relative to what it was before today)

Generally speaking they were M.P's for fairly afflulent and fairly socially liberal seats. In contrast Labour hung on to some other marginals where that's reversed. Go figure.

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Will Labour fragment?

No. The PLP is more ideological united now than it was before the election.
No reason to fragment; after all Gordon will be taking over soon enough.

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especially over Al who said I was mad when I suggested it to him a few months ago.

Biggest upset of the night. By far...

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200? Maybe. Some tight seats still to declare.

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Tories now have Ludlow, so thats one of the two required to reach 200.

That seat was r[censored]d

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Labour have held Selby. Good Lord... I never expected that...

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I have a question. Why do your polls close so late?

So more people can vote

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True, and staying up til 3am to work out who's going to be P.M is a pain, but it's not going to change soon.

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24,000 people voted for Harris... I can't think of another seat where that would be possible...

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Somethings that no one else has pointed out:

1. Labour held Dorset South!
2. This is the first election since 1918 where Gravesham hasn't backed either the winner of the PV or the overall election.

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Mr. Knight actually increased his vote count and if it hadn't been for all those micri-candidates, would have also incrreased his percentage as well.  Any ideas on why this happened?

The Tory candidate got himself into a spot of bother by:

a) doctoring a photo to use on his leaflets

b) using a photo of him next to two Olympic gold medal winning yachtswomen on his leaflets. He didn't ask their permission for this, and at least one is a die hard Labour supporter...

Add to that the fact that Knight is an excellent constituency M.P (the best the seat has had for God knows how long) and is also a very nice guy and...

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Straw's held Blackburn

On a mere 42% of the vote, 6 points less than in 1992. The seat's still safe, as the LD's, not the Cons gained - and the two are now virtually tied at about 22%.

He did a lot better than he was expected to do by a lot of people; he's (despite being a senior cabinet minister for the past 8 years) a very good constituency M.P and holds open air public meetings every weeken, gets a lot of door knocking done outsida election time etc. Interestingly, his predecessor, Castle, did exactly the same thing and kept Blackburn Labour in years when it would otherwise have gone Tory (55, 59, 70).

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Law (Ind Lab) has won a majority of over 10,000 in BG

What was the issue there?

The issue was who should the new candidate be. He'll rejoin Labour as soon as they let him, no doubts about it.

He said as soon as he won that'd he'd vote with Labour pretty much all the time. He seems to have viewed the whole thing as a sort of primary...

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I posted that before I saw the figures

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Well, he has been asked the exact same question at least four times a day for the past month...

True. And not once has he given the honest answer. Things they should have asked him: Why not run against Timms in East Ham? Wouldn't it make more sense to run against this fairly senior minister with a good shot at entering the cabinet when Brown takes over? He voted for the war too. Oh and Respect did better there in the Euro's than in Bethnal Green & Bow.

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West Belfast: SF hold

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Oh, btw, it is now impossible for the Tories to hit 200. Unless a miracle has happened and they take one of those three Northern Irish seats they're standing in.

Official: Howard worse leader than Foot

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Adams cracked 70%, and the opposition is split. I'd have to check, but that makes West Belfast a strong contender for "safest seat in the UK".

Nope: beaten by Bootle, L'Pool Walton, and (I think) Easington. And seeing as you might as well add up the Labour-Ebbw Vale and Labour-Tredegar votes in BG... you get *glup* over 90%...

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Trimble reported to be "in trouble" in Upper Bann

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Is it not more working class than Southgate?

Yes; it's a traditional turnout affected marginal; west of the seat is middle class and Tory, east of the seat is working class and Labour.
On reflection, maybe not such a suprise.

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Beggs has got booted out so hard he's landed in the middle of the North Channel...

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Labour holds Reading West! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

But the Tories took Reading East! What happened?

Vote split. Happend in a lot of other Southern seats.

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Wipeout?

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Interesting fact:

The two Labour candidates in BG took a combined total of 90%... and every other candidate lost their deposit.

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Harrow is all Labour now (large Indian and Jewish populations).

UUP hold North Down: thank God