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May 6, 2005
Election Night 05 #17
The next big push must be for electoral reform. How any government could claim a majority on such a small share of the vote and still claim a democratic mandate is beyond me. Will be interesting to see the figures on just how many votes it took to elect an MP from each of the 3 main parties this time round.Of course given that Blair failed to deliver on Labour's 1997 manifesto commitment to a referendum on this issue, and that the current system has delivered another majority for Labour, you can be sure it won't come up in this Parliament if he can help it.
Oliver Letwin holds on to Dorset West, with an increased share of the vote. LibDem's strategy of attacking Tory big names, and a possible neglect of the West Country vote, seems to have backfired.
Losses/Gains to date:
Conservatives gain 16 seats.
LibDems gain 7 seats.
Oth gain 2 seats.
Labour down 25 seats.
Welwyn and Hatfield falls to the Conservatives. There goes number 13 on the vulnerable list, and down goes Health Minister Melanie Johnson.
Bad result for the SNP in Dumfries and Galloway, with their share of the vote dropping 13%. Labour hold the seat,.
Meanwhile the Conservatives take Dumfriesshire from Labour, giving them a presence in Scotland again.
And the result from Erewash? Well, the permatanned nutter looks tres unhappy. Not too surprising as he gave up a cushy number as MEP to fight this seat for Veritas. A classic example of the triumph of hubris over good sense, especially as it looks like he might have even lost his deposit. Once again the BNP have picked up a couple of thousand votes, a disturbing trend.
After 2 recounts, Sittingbourne and Sheppey declares for Labour, vulnerable seat number 53 and a Conservative target. Majority of only 79, but the Conservatives should have taken it.
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Posted by Clive on May 6, 2005 3:22 AM in the category Old Stuff