Free Republic

The Liberal Democrat leader, Jo Swinson, has been toppled in her own seat, throwing her future at the head of the party into serious doubt after a dismal showing at the polls generally. Swinson, who started the campaign claiming she could be the next prime minister, lost in her East Dunbartonshire constituency to the SNP, a result that capped a disastrous night for her party. Though Lib Dem numbers in the Commons swelled before the election to 21, aided by MPs crossing the floor, the Ipsos Mori exit poll predicted the party winning 13 seats – only one more than...

A row broke out last night over the state of Britain's hospitals after a retired consultant complained that his wife received far better treatment in India. Opposition parties accused Labour of running down the NHS and failing to put patients first. The dispute was sparked by the contrasting experience of Mark Ziervogel, 70, and his wife Toni, 66, in hospitals in India and Glasgow. She received specialist treatment in two medical centres in India after suffering a serious head injury when she fell off a bicycle in Rajasthan in February. Her husband, a former consultant radiologist, said the hospital in...