“THE scale of the Scottish Tories’ 2005 general election defeat was laid bare yesterday as it emerged that the party spent £1.3 million on a campaign which yielded only one MP and left it with the lowest vote share in its history.”

Top UK election spenders revealed: “…Labour spent £1.90 for every vote it won, compared with £2.03 for the Tories. The Lib Dems got the best value at 72p per vote, although they spent more per seat won than Labour.”

Peter Snow hangs up swingometer. Gah! Elections will never be the same. Who else could possibly present absurd computer graphics with authority? (Via.)

Hmm, well one person has decided to get all party political with the proportional representation debate.

Forgetting the arguments about PR versus FPTP, which are well rehearsed on both sides, what interests me is the Lib Dem obsession with PR. It tells you everything you need to know about them. They don’t believe they have the policies, the calibre of staff, or a leader that’s good enough to be voted into government. Nor apparently do they ever expect they will. That’s why they put all their hopes for gaining real political power into a change of political system.

The thing about FPTP, though, isn’t just that it makes it difficult for smaller parties to gain power. It also makes it difficult for equally-sized parties to gain power. The current system is shamelessly biased towards Labour.

Scribbler continues:

Such a lack of ambition and conviction is embarrassing. If they don’t have the confidence to believe they can ever form a government on their own merit, then why should anybody else?

That’s nothing. The real embarassment is that Labour need to cling on to such an antiquated system in order to remain in government. A majority of 66, but with just 35% of the votes! Genius!

Looking into PR was a Labour manifesto commitment in 1997. Sure enough, they commissioned the Jenkins Report. And then ignored the report’s recommendations.

Mind you, I don’t suppose we can expect too much from Labour. They aren’t exactly the most democratic of parties.

Police later used powers under the Terrorism Act to prevent Mr Wolfgang’s re-entry…

Now hecklers can be terrorists aswell! Brilliant! Before long, everybody will be able to join in!

They’ve still not learned, according to “a leading Highlands Tory” no less. Sorry to quote such a large chunk of it, but he hits the nail pretty much on the head in my view.

Robbie Rowantree… also claimed his party was complacent on race relations, riven by homophobia and stuck in a time warp…

He said his own candidacy in Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey was not helped by the Tories “wittering on about nonsense” during the April campaign…

Rowantree says the party’s attempt to win votes, led by leader David McLetchie and chairman Peter Duncan, made no impact on ordinary Scots: “They just don’t seem to be able to articulate the needs of a right-of-centre party that is aspirational for Scotland. Who are these strange old people talking about foreigners, gays and criminals?”

…he believes the recent appointment as interim deputy chairman of Jackson Carlaw, who was caught cracking racist jokes during the election campaign, indicates that the Tories are unwilling to change.

“Everybody thinks the Tories are a shower of racist xenophobes anyway. All you do is reinforce the stereotypes by doing stupid things like that. The mind boggles.”

He also said that instead of clamping down on immigration, an inclusive Tory party should welcome foreign workers with “open arms”.

Via Stuart Dickson.

I’m posting this in every single category to make sure everybody who might need this gets it.

I’ve decided that my categories are a mess, and tomorrow I’m going to attempt to clean them up a bit. I’ll be creating new categories, deleting rubbish old ones, and changing where they go. Some posts might end up in different places. Just a heads up, because it does mean that some feed URLs, and indeed website URLs, will change.

Justin at Chicken Yoghurt has had a look at the Parliamentary research paper on the election.

Now that the election is well and truly over (well, almost) the political landscape looks like a slightly different place..

Firstly, Tony Blair is facing challenges to his “mandate” left, right and centre — literally. The seemingly never-ending criticism from his own backbenchers ever since Friday suggests that even with a majority Blair is going to find it pretty tough to get anything even remotely controversial through the House of Commons.

The West Lothian Question has also been popping up in all sorts of ugly forms aswell. Seeing as how the Conservatives “won England” in terms of votes, Blair will find it extremely difficult to justify using Scottish MPs to push through controversial legislation that affects England only. All sorts of possibilities seem to keep on cropping up; a seemingly never-ending list of West Lothian quandaries. What if Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister? He will be a Scottish PM representing accountable to voters in a Scottish constituency in charge of English-only issues. The Conservatives are sure to make a big issue of this, especially considering that they had the most votes in England. Quite rightly, this should cause Blair a headache.

But whilst the Conservatives had the most votes in England, they did not win the most seats. Getting a fairer electoral system seems to be the issue everybody’s talking about at the moment. Quite right too.

Charles Kennedy’s trying to work out how the Lib Dems could possibly improve on 62 seats. Local Income Tax could be an early casualty. Hmm.

Michael Howard, on the other hand, is a “lame duck” leader. I’ve always said the Tories need to reinvent themselves, a la New Labour. It sounds like they’re finally realising this, and discussions on the future direction of the Conservatives will be interesting to follow.

Scotland’s having its own wee political upheaval. With Jim Wallace leaving, the question is not quite so much “who can replace Jim Wallace?,” as, “can anybody think of any other Lib Dem MSPs?” Nicol Stephen seems to be the man everybody’s backing. Along with this, everybody seems to think that the future of the Labour / Lib Dem coalition is doomed. The chances of a Lib Dem / SNP coalition? If Labour can’t form a coalition, you can bet on it. From a Lib Dem point of view, teaming up with the SNP is not as ridiculous as partnering Labour. Apart from that sticky independence issue, the SNP and the Lib Dems have pretty similar policies overall.

Update: A further thought on the Conservative leadership. Surely it cannot be Hague as some seem to be suggesting? This is a man who thought the 2001 General Election was a referendum on the pound, and who boasted that he regularly drank fourteen baseball caps per day as a student. Or something.

Armando Iannucci’s new programme, The Thick of It, is finally starting next Thursday on BBC Four. The Observer has a preview piece on it, and it sounds like it’s going to be one of the very best programmes of the year.

…Chris Morris, his friend and collaborator on The Day Today, says [it] ‘is one of the best things he’s ever done, if not the best thing’.

…

In the first of the series, a new unit, the Anti-Benefit Fraud Executive (ABFE) understatedly goes through several name changes in the course of the programme, becoming Scambusters, Snooper Force and Sponge Avengers. The idea that getting the name right has become the most important thing feels horribly realistic, as does a pervasive sense that politicians are making things up as they go along.

…

Someone says of the press secretary: ‘She’s not just thinking inside the box. She’s built a box inside the box and she’s thinking inside that box.’

…the naturalistic feel of The Thick of It gives the viewer a sense of eavesdropping on reality. The script is only 80 per cent written at the start of rehearsals and the cast is expected to improvise. They talk over each other, speak tentatively or not quite at the right level and, as the hand-held cameras swing around trying to catch them, you lose the old-fashioned sitcom sense of worked-up punchlines, the lack of contrived and pointed satirical moments giving the dialogue more bite.

Meanwhile, Iannucci has this to say about the election:

In the event, he pronounces himself satisfied with the polls: ‘Despite the immensely stupid electoral system that can allow massive changes in seats at very little change in the proportion of votes, the electorate turned out to be mightily sophisticated in getting precisely what it wanted, which was to keep Labour in power but with a very scared look on its face that we can all laugh at.’

Finally, why oh why oh why oh why oh why haven’t The Armando Iannucci Shows been released on DVD yet?

Zimbabwe TV says British election marred by fraud.

Veritas candidate gets zero votes. (Via.)

Update: As Nick said in the comments, it was a mistake and has been rectified. Looked funny while it lasted though. I believe that there was one candidate who got only one vote though!

Where now for voting reform campaign?

Check out the discussion forum.

Nina Temple:

First-past-the-post has reduced the general election to a travesty of democracy.
Labour has secured 55% of the seats with 36% of the vote. The Lib Dems with 22% have secured 11%. (figures based on the first 474 results)

The system is viciously biased against the Tories. Labour led them in share of the vote by only 3% but still has nearly twice as many seats.

How can a government backed by just over one in five electors - a 36% share of the 60% who turned out - conceivably claim any sort of valid democratic mandate?

JohnSA:

Labour has been returned with the lowest ever portion of the popular vote for the winning party, yet still have some 66 overall majority. Is it any wonder why the national turnout was the second lowest for over a century? People are just plain fed-up.

Arthur’s Seat:

A cracking night for the Scottish LibDems, mild anxiety for Labour, disappointment for the SNP and frustration for the Scottish Tories.

Contrasting with my view earlier in the evening that it was a good night for everybody except Labour. Looking back, though, the SNP did say that they wanted 6 seats minimum (that’s the impression I got anyway), so in this respect they only just scraped a good result. I still think to Tories’ win is a big one though, even though they lost out on Dumfries and Galloway. However, the Conservatives and the SNP have been shoved down to fourth and third respectively. Undoubtedly the Lib Dems were the biggest winners in Scotland.

Stuart Dickson and Alister Black have their takes on the Scottish results.

Nick Griffin was wearing anti-racism wristbands.

I bloody love you, you’re my best mate, etc. Tony Blair seems to be acknowledging some sort of message in some way. First there was Gordon Brown playing a central role throughout the campaign. Then Alan Milburn is off (apparently not jumped before he was pushed. Absolutely not. No). At dawn he was calling everybody his comrades! Then his speech outside Number 10 acknowledged that Labour would have a tougher time in this Parliament.

I’ve just been watching the Scottish lunchtime round-up here. David Robertson asked Colin Fox how he could be taken seriously if he’s walking about the streets of Glasgow dressed up as Robin Hood. Fox’s response was robust, and I agree. The SSP’s humorous approach has been one of the few interesting things about the election campaign. It’s part of the SSP itself though; let’s get used to it and enjoy it for what it is: a serious message delivered in an entertaining manner.

Tabloid Photoshop contest.

To round off, there are two real highlights from last night that stick in my mind. Galloway versus Paxman of course is one. But the other is Robert Kilroy-Silk hearing just how few votes he got. He looked genuinely puzzled, like he couldn’t comprehend how he could barely get more than 5% of the votes.

I think that’s all for the moment…

Update: Peter Hain is on News 24 right now trying to make out that Tony Blair is responsible for “bumping off” four Tory leaders.

UKIP have lost £225,500 in lost deposits. Ouch!

Update: What is also amazing is just how accurate the polls were. Not just the exit polls, but the polls in general were pretty much bang on!

Before the election I had two things that I wanted to happen.

1. A reduced Labour majority (under 70 would be good)
2. Lib Dem gains (number of seats in the 60s)

Both have been achieved and the fears that were created by that exit poll were proved to be unfounded. The Conservatives haven’t done as well as the BBC were predicting they would either.

I’ll reflect more later.

Update: Howard’s resigned! My mother and I both think Rifkind could be the new leader. David Davis is possibly more likely, although if he has to fight in his own constituency throughout the next General Election because it’s a marginal that would be another big blow for the Tories.

I just got connected, so I’m a wee bit behind.

To set the scene, there’s me with a hastily hooked-up computer. There is my Labour-supporting friend. A “closet Tory” (not really, but that’s our in-joke). And two others whose political persuasion I don’t really know. But it’s an excuse to drink, eh?

Click for more! I’ll be updating this post as the night goes on.

Click for more »

Just went with the rest of my family to vote. Nice weather. Infact, it’s too hot. Good for Labour?

Two journalists from The Guardian interviewed us as we left the polling station. Firstly they asked if we would reveal how we voted. My mother revealed that she voted Lib Dem, and the journalist took it as read that the other two of us voted Lib Dem aswell (I don’t know how my father actually voted though). We were asked why we didn’t vote Labour. My father frowned and after a while just humphed, “They’re too right-wing.”

I wasn’t really able to get much of a word in edgeways. Just as I was about to do my piece about Labour abolishing trial by jury and all the rest of it, all of a sudden I was asked about the economy. I said it looked as though the economy had seemed good, but what with problems in the retail sector, MG Rover and Marconi, it was just starting to go downhill. He confirmed, “Yes, it is.” Turns out he’s an economics writer.

Here’s the interesting bit though. The journalist told us that he had expected everybody to be really behind Gordon Brown because he comes from Kirkcaldy. Apparently this is not the case.

“The Tories are too far behind to win by any of the available doors.” — CuriousHamster on the ground in Aberdeen South.

Less than six hours before the polling stations open, and there was one candidate who I still didn’t know anything about.

I could only find information after a bit of Googling, and following a link on a rather — ahem — colourful website called Equitable Life Members Support Group. And here is her website.

So now the concerned-about-pensions vote is going to be split three ways! That’s if anybody actually hears of Elizabeth Kwantes before they reach the polling station…

The Observer Vote-o-matic 2.0:

You scored 44
Think about voting Liberal Democrat right until you get into the polling booth. Then vote Labour.

Yeah right.

Tory Policy Generator.

Speech at a press conference by Rt Hon Michael Howard MP
– CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY –

Good morning. Labour will lie about this policy.

We, like many people, are fed up with GYPSIES .

What if one of them looked at you in a funny way?

The News of the World reckons its time to MAKE A PUBLIC EXAMPLE OF these people.

But how will we pay for it? By abolishing Jobcentres.

I think I′d better stop now, I just heard the last Tory voter has fallen asleep in front of the TV. Thank you very much and goodnight.

– ENDS —

Via Shot by both sides.

Letting them in by the front door.

I watched a bit of Newsnight last night. Martha Kearney said that the reason Labour have been banging on about people voting Lib Dem is because they’ve had a look at the postal votes!

See also this comment on Independence.

Apparently it’s all legal. How bizzare that, for instance, the BBC aren’t allowed to reveal the results of an exit poll before 10pm — yet people can have a look at actual votes long before polling day!

What the Lib Dem drugs policy is all about.

If 1 in 10 Labour voters don’t vote…
If 1 in 10 Labour voters don’t vote…

We’re on the last lap of the election campaign. People have been saying that it was a boring campaign, and I kind of agree. I can’t remember too many election campaigns though, because this is only the fifth general election in my lifetime anyway.

I won’t be joining the newspapers in that odd tradition of telling you how to vote. I will say that — in case you had any doubt — I will be voting for the local Liberal Democrat candidate for all sorts of reasons that I write about all the time (and that by extension I think that you should too, but that’s up to you of course).

Read perfect.co.uk’s ‘final push’. There’s nothing new there, and it nicely rounds things up.

I’m going to be taking a break from all that revision I’ve been doing on Thursday night / Friday morning and for the first time I will hopefully be liveblogging.