UK elections

The BBC just announced a hung Parliament, as the Conservatives with a plurality of seats are mathematically eliminated from obtaining a majority with 35 seats to declare. The last time this occurred was 1974. Let the party negotiations begin. Lib-Lab coalition likely to be negotiated and will Clegg’s Lib Dems push for parliamentary reform to do away with first-past-the-post {winner take all in a constituency}. While some say a “coalition of losers” won’t have legitimacy in the eyes of the electorate, Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman says the current Prime Minister Gordon Brown is constitutionally obligated to try to form a government.

Live coverage from BBC News is available here.

Song:: Killing Joke-‘Democracy’

Twitterversion:: BBC calls a hung Parliament, as Tories w/ an expected plurality of seats will be short of majority of 326. #ThickCulture http://url.ie/62oy @Prof_K

I’ve been following the 2010 UK election which is tomorrow. I saw this John Ross article on the long-term Conservative decline in the UK. The Tories are likely to have the most seats after tomorrow, have a shot at getting a majority of the seats, and the bookies are expecting a Conservative victory. Nevertheless, even if the Conservatives get the expected 35-40% of the national vote, the overall trend is downwards. The Thatcher-Major era in the 80s and 90s saw Conservative support only in the low 40s. Ross notes that the recent rise of Labour since 1997 has a lot to do with the Tories being unpopular.

Also of interest is the rise of the Liberals/Liberal Democrats::

Just like the current situation in Canada, the electorate is fragmented and the major parties are having a hard time gaining support.

Twitterversion:: Graphs by John Ross show decline trend in UK Tory support since 1930. Labour seesaws & Liberals trend up. @Prof_K

Song:: The {English} Beat-‘Stand Down Margaret’ – Reference to Margaret Thatcher, Tory UK PM, 1979-1990