Saturday 8 May 2010

General Election - We're still waiting!

Well, though the aftermath is not yet over, a bit of relief to temper the disappointment. The big 'downer' being that the result confounded just about everybody's expectation that the Lib Dems would not only do well but spectacularly so. In the event they actually ended up with five fewer seats than before, thanks to the vagaries of our silly voting system. They now have 57 seats out of the 650 whereas if there was a seats/votes proportionality it ought to have been nearer 160. (Among the Lib Dem casualties was the tragic loss of one of Parliament's leading atheists and its most vocal secularist, who very narrowly lost his seat to a Conservative.) The best part, though, is that the Conservatives failed to get enough seats to govern in their own right, even though it was their biggest numerical seat-gain since 1931. As at now there are talks between the leaders of the Conservatives and Lib Dems to try to form some sort of coalition, though I cannot imagine there being enough common ground between their parties to work - a Labour/Lib Dem partnership would have seemed much more likely to survive, though the Lib Dems propping up a party which certainly did NOT win carries the danger of being tainted by association. Another hopeful sign among the results was that the small number of out-gay MPs has increased yet again, including even among the Conservatives - and none of the high-profile former out-gay MPs on both sides was ousted. Also much relief that that awful woman, who ran a Church claiming to 'cure' gays through prayer, failed to win. Another noteworthy 'happy' is to see this country's first-ever Green Party member elected. Okay, she's only one out of 650, but nevertheless she is a key beacon of hope for the future. (She would have been my own representative had I still lived at my previous address.) Also reassuring to have found that not a single one of the several hundred far-right candidates, including those of the newish 'Christian Party', came anywhere near sniffing distance of winning a seat. All pathetic, 'worthy' losers!
So it's still a case of 'wait and see'. Verdict so far? - Nowhere near as good as I'd hoped but could have been so very much worse.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for this update and analysis Ray. I predict a similar outcome in America in November. The Republicans will likely win many seats but fall short of taking control of either house. Unless of course a lot of good things happen in the next few months that demonstrate Obama's policies are working.

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  2. Larry, the Christian Conservative Group is crowing at having got the scalp of my favourite MP, Evan Harris (Lib Dem + consistent LGTB supporter), who because of his passionate humanism and criticism of religious 'privilege' became their number one target. Apparently all Christian fundamentalists in his area pooled their resources in one single candidate (Conservative, of course) to oust him. In the end he lost by only 170 votes (out of some 60,000) so it was damn close. Parliament has lost a great talent - for now. Hope there'll have to be another election soonish which will get him back in. It's looking increasingly likely.

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