Free Republic

German Social Democratic Party (SPD) MEP Jo Leinen told The Local on Monday he was unhappy with comments from European Parliament (EP) President Martin Schulz, who suggested that Britain should be allowed to opt out of the call to work towards “ever closer union” among EU countries. “The only country that has opted out of European integration with special rules in the past decades has been Great Britain,” Schulz told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. “We would only be recognizing what has been true for London for a long time.” But Social Democratic MEP Jo Leinen told The Local that Schulz’s...

Controversial former MP George Galloway is to seek election as the next mayor of London. The Respect Party leader, who has threatened a legal challenge over his general election defeat, declared his bid on Twitter. Mr Galloway posted a picture of himself sitting on an unmade bed with his young son and the slogan "Dad, you've got to do this. I've got your back!". "I'm standing for Mayor of London 2016," he added. On 7 May, Mr Galloway lost the Bradford West Commons seat he took from Labour, his former party, in a 2012 by-election. The seat was won by...

Labour’s former council leader in Thanet, Iris Johnston, has been caught on camera allegedly ‘helping’ a member of the public to cast their ballot during last Thursday’s election. The votes for Thanet District Council took place on the same day as the General Election, when UKIP leader Nigel Farage was attempting to be elected as the Member of Parliament for South Thanet. ... Johnston’s proximity to the voter may well qualify as compromising the secrecy of the ballot, something that worried the Conservative Party’s Paul Messenger, who took the photo. He told the BBC, “It concerned me that Iris was...

George Galloway, the socialist firebrand best known in America for his condemnations of Israel and the Iraq War, was soundly defeated for re-election to Parliament in Thursday's British general election. Galloway, a former Labour member who won the seat for Bradford West in the northwest of England in a 2012 special election, was beaten by Labour's Naz Shah, a political newcomer who overcome childhood poverty, a teenage forced marriage and the imprisonment of her mother for killing an abusive partner. Shah had urged voters to reject Galloway because "we do not need a one-man Messiah to tell us how to...

President Obama's campaign mastermind suffered a humiliating end to his political career today as the British Labour party he was paid almost $500,000 to help to victory plunged to a catastrophic defeat. David Axelrod had been touted as the man to get Labour's Ed Miliband into - and the Conservative prime minister David Cameron out of - Downing Street. Instead he slunk out of Britain early, as his former Obama campaign colleague Jim Messina, who advised the winning Conservatives, crowed over a victory which had 'stunned the world'. Axelrod had already vowed that he was 'done with campaigns' after complaining...

The Conservatives have emerged as the dominant force in English politics after a string of surprising wins in key constituencies. Significant gains in the marginal "killing fields" helped the party to a comfortable majority. In a night of upheaval, seats previously considered Labour and Lib Dem strongholds turned blue as results trickled in. Several high-profile names including Ed Balls and Vince Cable lost their seats. Failure to win key marginals, combined with Labour losses in Scotland, prompted Ed Miliband to stand down. Meanwhile, Nick Clegg resigned as Liberal Democrat leader after his party suffered heavy losses and UKIP leader Nigel...

Ukip supporters have woken up this morning to find that the party retains only 1 MP, but they will surely feel cheated by an election system that has handed the SNP over 56 MPs for a much smaller number of votes. Despite bringing in almost 4 million votes, making Ukip the third biggest party by vote share, this election has seen the fall of their leader Nigel Farage and second MP Mark Reckless. The spectacular success of the SNP in Scotland throws into sharp relief the unfairness of the first-past-the-post system on smaller parties. By the time Farage lost his...

The election results in Britain has given the Conservative Party a majority in the UK parliament. But the most interesting story in the election, is the events in Scotland. The Labor Party has been wiped out in Scotland. The Scottish National Party (SNP) increased their seats in the British Parliament by 833 percent, the greatest increase seen by any party in the post World War Two era. Scotland has 59 seats in the British Parliament. The list below shows the distribution of Scottish UK Parliament seats from the 2010 election to the 2015 election. 2010 - Labor (41), Liberal Democrats...

Polls had the race neck and neck until the last moment An independent inquiry is to be carried out into the accuracy of election polls after underestimates of the Conservatives' lead over Labour. Predictions of a neck-and-neck race, a near-balanced parliament, and a potential constitutional crisis following the General Election put forward by all major pollsters during the campaign were proved drastically wrong. In the end, David Cameron's party secured an overall majority, something even the exit poll of 22,000 voters at 141 polling stations did not detect. The British Polling Council (BPC), which acts as the association for opinion...

David Cameron today vowed to make Great Britain 'greater still' as he set out how he will use his shock outright Tory majority to ensure the 'good life is in reach for everyone who's willing to work and do the right thing'. The Prime Minister used a statement outside Number 10 to pay tribute to both Labour's Ed Miliband and his former Lib Dem deputy Nick Clegg who have both resigned after suffering heavy losses in one of the most unpredictable election results for a generation. Mr Cameron returned to Number 10 with his wife Samantha after making the short...

Ed Miliband today announced he was quitting as Labour leader after calling David Cameron to congratulate him on his extraordinary election victory. He insisted he took full responsibility for the dreadful night of results, which saw big names including Ed Balls, Douglas Alexander and Jim Murphy swept out by the Tories and the SNP. He thanked his supporters for their backing, selfies and the 'most unlikely cult ever' Milifandom, as he confirmed Harriet Harman will take over as acting leader. 'I am truly sorry I did not succeed. I did my best for five years,' he said. 'We've come back...

UKIP only one parliamentary seat and Nigel Farage resigned after failing to win in the constituency he ran in. But UKIP came in third place with 3.9 MM votes or 12.7% gaining 9.6% easily beating the Liberal-Democrats. The problem is their votes are spread all over England so they only one seat in a first-past-the-post voting system.

It was enough to make a blogger in mom's basement spit out his Cheetos in surprise. On today's Morning Joe income redistributionist and global climate kvetcher Prof. Jeffrey Sachs praised the UK Conservatives for creating jobs via an austerity budget. In a second surprise, Sachs criticized fellow lefty traveler Paul Krugman. Said Sachs of the Conservatives: "they governed well . . . they got the economy going again. They got it stabilized, they got the debt crisis Britain was facing under control and they created a lot of jobs and they got rewarded last night." And a bit later, the...

<p>British Prime Minister David Cameron and his Tory party all but vanquished the opposing Labor Party and proved pre-election polls wrong with a resounding election triumph he called "the sweetest victory of all."</p> <p>Fueled by a landslide in Scotland, Cameron and the Tories left opponents on the right and left in tatters. The Labour Party lost 24 seats in Parliament according to early returns, and party leader Ed Miliband resigned from his role. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg resigned after acknowledging a "cruel and punishing defeat," in which his left-of-center part suffered its worst-ever defeat - dropping from 57 seats to just 8. On the right, UK Independence Party Leader Nigel Farage, a thorn in Cameron's side, failed to win a seat.</p>

I have today written to UKIP's National Executive Committee and offered my resignation. I look forward to a well deserved holiday!— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) May 8, 2015

David Cameron's second term as British Prime Minister was confirmed Friday after his Conservative Party won enough seats to form a working majority in the 650-member House of Commons. Shortly before noon Friday, London time, the Conservatives, or Tories, had won 324 seats to 229 It would be the first time the Conservatives had won a parliamentary majority since 1992. Cameron is the first Conservative Prime Minister to win re-election since Margaret Thatcher.

<p>Labour Party grandee Jack Straw, leaving Parliament after 36 years that included several Cabinet stints, called the party's showing in Scotland "an unbelievably bad situation in Scotland which frankly nobody anticipated."</p> <p>Throughout the campaign, Scottish voters told pollsters and journalists they were tired of being taken for granted by Labour, and many had not been impressed when Miliband joined forces with Cameron to urge Scottish voters to reject independence in last September's referendum. Scots whose families had for decades voted Labour turned away in droves.</p>

4 minutes agoNigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, has failed to win a seat in the House of Commons.

David Axelrod: UK Media Most Partisan I Have Seen – Even More Than Fox News Ben Jacobs 7 May 2015 David Axelrod, the top aide to Barack Obama who travelled across the pond to advise Ed Miliband in the British election, has said he has never seen a media environment as partisan as the one in the UK. Asked in an interview with Politico Europe whether he knew what he was getting into when he signed up to advise the British Labour leader, Axelrod replied: “We discussed this when I signed on … I’ve worked in aggressive media environments before...