My prediction is that Sir Richard Branson steps up to the plate.
Posted on 05/05/2005 7:59:15 AM PDT by tellw
The Vote is under way!
They need someone who can mobilize the base and go with pure conservative ideas and enter the religious world, like the US Republicans...
Wow, you must know a LOT about British politics. You certainly knew enough to fool me! ;-)
We don't have mandatory recounts, they can be requested by any party involved or the returning officer. That would be completed before the seat was declared though so there won't be a recount in those seats you mentioned. Battersea had 2 or 3 recounts last night before the result was given.
"Does anyone have any ideas as to who could succeed him? I must say I'm a bit puzzled, since I truly thought he earned the right to fight another day, but it's his decision."
I think it's the right decision. He was elected to not lose too badly and he's fulfilled his role. The Conservatives need someone to articulate a new vision for Britain and actually gain some votes next time (last night saw a gain in seats for various reason but a vote share marooned pretty much where it has been for the last 8 years). Whether the person that is needed actually exists in the Parliamentary Party is another matter...
I really got hooked when I watched the very same BBC telecast on C-Span back in 2001. I must admit, though, the coverage 4 years ago was better. They had a running seat count on the side and had a bar on the bottom calling all the other seats that they didn't mention. In fact, this is the first time in a long time that I think they did not do that...unless we in America simply could not see the more local results. The swing-o-meter is usually always the selling point. We gotta get us one of those!
Well if Howard had fought a decent Eurosceptic campaign he might nearly have won according to this Blog.
As it is I won't be sorry to see him go, especialy after he played fast and loose over the Iraq situation. GW hates him and that's good enough for me.
UKIP won it for Labour
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/
"UKIP won it for Labour"
Hardly. Even if, as posited by the linked site, every single UKIP voter had instead voted Conservative, they still give Labour a majority.
Well UKIP certainly won it for the Lib Dems in Torbay, that would have been a Tory gain without them.
You won't find too many people here who are not critical of the Conservative Party's stances on certain conservative issues, such as foreign policy/Iraq. The reason they aren't winning elections is because they are trying to be Labour lite, and it simply does not work. The Democrats tried a similar strategy over here with the "Anybody but Bush" type campaign, but they offered nothing themselves. Probably the same main reason that Michael Howard isn't moving into 10 Downing Street.
What the Conservatives need now is a young, energetic, and visible leader who will excite the conservative base and offer a clear vision for Britain's future. Who that person is, you got me.
I have to say their election coverage is far superior to ours. I also think their election process is superior to ours. Also funnier (the Raving Looney party, with candidate R U Serious! LOL!)
Even with the wankers they have, and they seem to have as big a share as we do, they don't seem to have the voting fraud problems and wild charges that we do. The Democrats are turning our election process into banana republic elections, for Gods sake.
I think the diversity of our state-level election processes and the much larger population and geographic area involved does partly explain why we don't do some of the things they do (like have all the candidates together for the announcement of the results). After all, their results they were announcing last night were often based on 50,000 total votes (in fact usually). Ours, even state level races, are often in the millions or at least hundreds of thousands.
Gotta give credit where credit is due, so I will say that I think British election night is funner than American election night. Maybe it's because of Peter Snow and the swing-o-meter, or maybe it's just the drama of the moment (all the candidates standing on stage, watching their reactions for something like a huge upset win). It all unfolds right in front of you. Last night was a good show.
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In case anyone is still interested, Harlow in the Eastern region is still undeclared. Does anyone know what's going on over there?
Harlow was recounting for the second time, result is apparantly very close.
The recount was stopped at 6am as all the volunteers doing the counting were knackered and they're going to start again tomorrow morning.
If the Tories were to snatch Harlow, they would be forecasted on 199 (after the soon-to-come Staffordshire South by-election). Just one short of the big 200 plateau...
My prediction is that Sir Richard Branson steps up to the plate.
"My prediction is that Sir Richard Branson steps up to the plate."
Ok, maybe we need to have more of a stringent qualifying system. Lets try "what the Conservatives need is a leader who is a member of Parliament and a Conservative".
I'm sure a repeat of Richard Branson's recent adoring ode to Gordon Brown would liven up PMQs as they faced each other across the floor of the Commons!
David Trimble has lost his seat in Northern Ireland. I make little pretence of understanding NI politics, but it looks as though the trend is continuing of the more extreme parties on either side gaining support.
Not entirely, the moderate Nationalists; the SDLP, are doing ok, they gained a seat in South Belfast and look to be holding on in Foyle (Derry). To be honest the DUP, Paisley's party, was on the verge of making a deal with Sinn Fein last December but backed out over IRA criminality. Subsequently the IRA robbed $55 million in a bank robbery and literally butchered a man in West Belfast, so it's not surprising and that the DUP gets credit for standing up to the Provos.
Yeah, I had noticed the UUP getting absolutely hammered, so that must make them pretty close to being wiped out. Northern Irish politics generally do not interest me as much as English politics, but that is important news for certain.
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