Just watched the video (live I guess) showing South Thanet’s totals, right when they announced Nigel Farage’s 16K (second place, the Tories took that seat, Labour was 11K, a couple of independents had 61 and 300+ respectively), and there were some rude folks in the crowd yelling “goodbye Nigel”. The Tory winner glared at them, and he credited Nigel with being the epicenter of a quake of discontent. Nicely done. Of course, he then said, there’s no need for UKIP. Nigel is speaking now, he’s pointing out that voters for SNP showed repudiation of Labour, and pointing out that second place for UKIP has resulted in just one seat, and calling for reform. Hmm, sounds like a Labour crowd, and the candidate is coming across as a thug, badmouthing Nick, typical Labour. The LD got its ass handed to it nationally, and the LD loser is still beating his campaign drum. Nick Clegg has resigned as LD leader.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/11585996/Watch-live-Election-day-coverage.html
Ed Miliband resignation imminent as Conservatives win stunning majority - LIVE
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/11591281/conservative-government-live.html
Technically the smallest number for a majority is 326 (half of 650 plus one) but Sinn Fein never attends Parliament, so the more seats that IRA/terrorist front wins, the smaller that half becomes. They lost ground this year.
Election results: Conservatives on course for majority
(no coalition, chew on that for a while; Cameron committed in 2013 to a 2017 referendum on EU membership if 2015 saw a Tory majority).
http://www.bbc.com/news/election-2015-32633099
[snip] The BBC forecast, with 635 of 650 seats declared, is Conservative 329, Labour 234, the Lib Dems eight, the SNP 56, Plaid Cymru three, UKIP one, the Greens one and others 19. [/snip]
I brought up a BBC feed as soon as I saw the result, Farange was just starting to speak.
SF lost 1 seat thanks to the electoral pact between the Unionist parties there (nice to see them acting smart, they did the same thing last time and narrowly lost that seat), the center-left Alliance party MP also lost. Looks like the Unionists won every seat they could except for one, Indie Syvlia Hermon, who votes like she’s in Labour, easily hung on. Good night for NI.
Sinn Fein has 4 seats left. 650-4=646 so 324 is theoretically the minimum # needed for a majority. I don’t know if the Tory figures include the Speaker, who sits and runs for reelection without party and can only vote on the floor to break a tie (and only then as convention dictates, they can’t vote to bring down a government but otherwise vote against the final passage of any bill)
I brought up a BBC feed as soon as I saw the result, Farange was just starting to speak.
SF lost 1 seat thanks to the electoral pact between the Unionist parties there (nice to see them acting smart, they did the same thing last time and narrowly lost that seat), the center-left Alliance party MP also lost. Looks like the Unionists won every seat they could except for one, Indie Syvlia Hermon, who votes like she’s in Labour, easily hung on. Good night for NI.
Sinn Fein has 4 seats left. 650-4=646 so 324 is theoretically the minimum # needed for a majority. I don’t know if the Tory figures include the Speaker, who sits and runs for reelection without party and can only vote on the floor to break a tie (and only then as convention dictates, they can’t vote to bring down a government but otherwise vote against the final passage of any bill)