Major Clanger's Election Roundup

[major_clanger]

Overall: What a mess. Not just a hung Parliament, but one where there isn't even an obvious solid coalition. My own bet now is that Labour and the LibDems stand back to allow Cameron to form a minority government, wait as he introduces austerity measures that in all honesty any incoming government would have had to adopt, then force a vote of no confidence and a fresh election once the Tories' popularity rating falls through the floor. That may be a cynical view but I think it's also a realistic one.

Worst news: Dr Evan Harris losing Oxford West and Abingdon by a sliver. Dr Harris - informally dubbed the Member for Scientific Evidence-based Policy Making within the UK Skeptic movement - was a tower of support during the Simon Singh libel trial and one of the most trenchant Parliamentary critics of the growing influence of pseudoscience into public policy.

Best News: George Galloway not only not winning in my constituency but actually getting fewer votes than the previous (and far less well-known) Respect candidate did in 2005. I'll leave you to form your own views on why he decided to stand in a different constituency this time around instead of fighting Bethnal Green and Bow again. I know there are people who read this who have time for him, but personally I find him one of the most odious individuals in British politics, and I hope he now departs into well-deserved obscurity.

What Clangers think of elections.

Comments

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

Just in case it's my ears that are burning about that Galloway comment. He served his role, as far as I was concerned, in getting rid of Oona King who was, frankly, an accomplice to war crimes who ignored the vast majority of her constituents' views.

I won't miss him.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Fair enough - and I don't think that many of your fellow constituents will miss him either.

As for Dr Harris, I'm frankly hoping that if there is a second election he stands again and seeks to recover his seat. We need people like him in Parliament.

[teaparty.net (from livejournal.com)]

Apart from hoping that Evan Harris gets back, I'd say: look to Julian Huppert, Cambridge's shiny new Lib Dem MP, for some evidence-based sanity. He sat on my sofa during the PPC selection phase and pointed out that he had a solid scientific background and a history of insisting on evidence for policy at County level, and that he fully intended to take the scientific mindset to Westminster, a place he felt desperately needed as of it as it could get.

[teaparty.net (from livejournal.com)]

:%s/as of it/as much of it/

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

I think he's a good candidate for a Lib Dem peerage in the resignation honours!




Harris, you fools, not Galloway!

[quercus.livejournal.com]

"I'll leave you to form your own views"

Catsuit.

[ben-jeapes.livejournal.com]

I live in Oxford West and Abingdon. I tried. I'm with you on the second election hope.

His replacement has a nice singing voice (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8667143.stm).

[dorispossum.livejournal.com]

am inclined to agree with your analysis of what Labour and Libdem stragegy OUGHT to be - though the desire to cling to/get a taste of power is heady stuff. will be exciting to see what transpires.

Am also delighted to see Galloway and his totalitarian ilk resoundingly rejected. Likewise to see Griffin soundly humiliated in Barking and Dagenham in an INCREASED Labour majority - which implies the constituents wanted to make a point. (Family honour at stake in that one, so particularly relieved!). Also happy to see the Greens get a seat at last.

Sad to find the Libdems (who i voted for nationally, but despise locally) have increased their grip on our city council. :(

[quercus.livejournal.com]

Griffin humiliated?

Apart from the seeming physiological impossibility of him ever reacting as "humiliated", that result scared the bejeesus out of me. That's not the drubbing he deserves, it's far too much like him getting onto the first rung in a PR system.

[dorispossum.livejournal.com]

14% in an area they'd marketed as their perfectly receptive constituency looks pretty humiliating to me. :)

i saw their previous alias (ational front) poll bigger in the 70s in more places, and still disappear into deserved obscurity. not to mention council seats in 80s and even now. I don't doubt PR will enable the election of some villains and nutters - but a token presence doesn't mean power.

[unwholesome-fen.livejournal.com]

I don't think the Lib Dems will sit back - this is their one chance to be power brokers. The Labour Party ought to be the major winners of this, assuming they get a new leader - the only possible ruling coalition is Conservative + Lib Dem, and when it collapses (18 months is probably the limit) they will be perfectly placed.