Sdiver
05-08-2015, 00:29
Well now, this is nice to see.
:lifter
Conservatives claim decisive win in British election, defying predictions
LONDON — British Prime Minister David Cameron prepared to form a new government Friday morning while an ashen Labor Party leader Ed Miliband conceded defeat after voters defied predictions of a deadlocked election and put the Conservative Party on the cusp of a majority in Parliament.
The results, Miliband acknowledged in a dawn speech, were “very disappointing and difficult.” Minutes later, Cameron celebrated “what is clearly a very strong night for the Conservative Party.”
The results upended virtually all pre-election polls, which forecast a virtual tie between the Tories and the opposition *Labor Party in the popular vote. Both main parties had been expected to fall well short of the majority needed to claim power outright.
But as the counting continued through the night and well into Friday, all signs pointed to an emphatic margin in favor of the Conservatives and Cameron, who is expected to return for another term at 10 Downing Street.
The result was a major disappointment for *Labor, which had thought it was within striking distance of ousting Cameron after five years of Tory rule. It was also a bitter blow for the Liberal Democrats, who paid a steep price for having entered into a coalition with the Conservatives.
Meanwhile, in the election’s other stunning development, though one that had been predicted, the Scottish National Party (SNP) was redrawing the map of Scotland with a historic rout in what has long been one of Labor's most reliable strongholds .
Exit polls released by the BBC just after voting ended predicted that the Conservatives would win 316 seats in the 650-member Parliament, compared with just 239 for Labor. The results shocked most political analysts, and party leaders greeted the numbers with considerable caution, if not outright *disdain.
But as one after another of the individual races reported results, there was growing acceptance that the exit polls had caught the mood of the voters far better than had the pre-election polls. With most seats accounted for, the BBC forecast Friday morning that the Conservatives would win 325 total seats. Because six members of the House of Commons do not traditionally vote, that would be enough for a working majority.
If they fall short, they would need the support of others to govern. But either way, they were expected to emerge in a far stronger position to begin to form a new government than nearly anyone had *predicted.
Another Conservative-led *government likely would mean doubling down on austerity for the British economy after years of belt-tightening, as well as a potentially divisive debate over Britain’s membership in the European Union ahead of a possible referendum in 2017. With the rise of the SNP, the results also presaged increased tensions between England and Scotland and renewed calls for Scottish independence.
Cameron spoke to those issues in Friday morning’s victory speech. He promised to continue his government’s efforts to eliminate the deficit and said a referendum on EU membership was one that “we must hold to decide Britain’s future in Europe.” He also promised to stand for “one nation, one United Kingdom. That is how I will govern.”
Leading Tories, as the Conservatives are known, had cautiously declared victory when the exit poll was announced late Thursday, saying their record in bringing the economy back from the depths of recession had been validated. *Labor Party leaders, meanwhile, attempted to put the best face on what looked to be a deeply disappointing result.
Such a wide Tory margin will leave Labor in an extremely difficult position. Miliband, who had won plaudits for his conduct during the campaign, had hoped to be able to form a minority government, even if it came in second in total seats, by relying on the votes of the SNP and possibly others.
But with Labor running poorly, Miliband was already facing serious questions about whether he can continue as the leader of the party. In his Friday speech, he called on the next government to “keep our country together,” noting the surge of nationalist sentiment in Scotland.
The counting continued into the early morning hours Friday, with final numbers not likely to be tabulated until midday. But the Tory expressions of delight with the result began Thursday evening.
“I’m celebrating,” said *Lawrence Worsley, a 48-year-old project manager, as he held a pint of beer high in the air at the Blue Boar, a swanky restaurant close to the Conservative headquarters in London.
“I think people who were undecided came to the polls and made their mind up at the last minute that it’s best to stick with what you know, something that has worked,” he said.
When the exit poll was announced on the BBC, a cluster of suited patrons watching on the restaurant’s big-screen televisions cheered, while others gasped audibly.
If the Tories fall short of an absolute majority, they will face a choice of whether to go into a formal coalition with other parties or to try to forge ahead with a minority government that wins support from allies on key votes. Whatever the final results, the Conservatives will find themselves trying to govern a country that is more regionally divided than it has been in many years.
Pre-election polls had predicted problems for the Liberal Democrats, but the collapse was even greater than anticipated. The exit poll projected that the party would end up with just 10 seats, down from 57 in 2010. Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was one of the few to retain his seat, but he called it “a cruel and punishing night” for his party and hinted that he might step down.
The SNP was on course to win nearly all of Scotland’s 59 seats, a staggering result in an area that has long been a bedrock of support for Labor.The result makes the SNP the third-largest party in the new Parliament behind the Conservatives and Labor.
The anti-immigration U.K. *Independence Party (UKIP) was running third in the overall national vote, but it was struggling under Britain’s first-past-the-post voting system to turn support into seats. The party had won just a single seat by 6 a.m., and party leader Nigel Farage was in an extremely tough race to claim a second. Farage has said he will step down as party leader if he loses.
The Green Party was predicted to win two seats.
Thursday’s results followed a campaign that laid bare fundamental questions about Britain’s identity that could become even more divisive in the years ahead. At a time of growing U.S. frustration with its closest ally, Britain may be drawn even further inward and away from global affairs.
The Scottish nationalists, suddenly a major player in London after Thursday’s vote, want to break up the United Kingdom — and have often used a Tory government that is unpopular among Scots as their strongest argument for independence.
UKIP has campaigned to take Britain out of the E.U. and is likely to use its toehold in the House of Commons to force the issue.
Before the campaign began, most analysts had expected that Cameron would coast to a relatively easy reelection, boosted by a recovering economy and a significantly higher favorability rating than Miliband.
But Miliband performed better than many expected in the harsh glare of the campaign, emphasizing the growing divide between rich and poor at a time of minimal wage growth and deep cuts to government assistance programs.
In the final days of the campaign, with the polls still tied, Cameron became more passionate on the campaign trail. He also became more negative, predicting that Labor would lead the country to economic calamity if voted into office.
That message appeared to have resonated, and may have turned the tide in his favor after weeks of political trench warfare that appeared to do little to move the polls.
After voting Tory in the tony North London neighborhood of Hampstead on Thursday, Norma Bainbridge said her decision came down to a single word: “money.”
“The Conservatives are quite clever with it,” said the 80-year-old. “Labor got rid of it. We were broke.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/conservatives-claim-decisive-win-in-british-election-defying-predictions/2015/05/08/4931f84e-f4f9-11e4-bca5-21b51bbdf93e_story.html?postshare=9411431065301432
:lifter
Conservatives claim decisive win in British election, defying predictions
LONDON — British Prime Minister David Cameron prepared to form a new government Friday morning while an ashen Labor Party leader Ed Miliband conceded defeat after voters defied predictions of a deadlocked election and put the Conservative Party on the cusp of a majority in Parliament.
The results, Miliband acknowledged in a dawn speech, were “very disappointing and difficult.” Minutes later, Cameron celebrated “what is clearly a very strong night for the Conservative Party.”
The results upended virtually all pre-election polls, which forecast a virtual tie between the Tories and the opposition *Labor Party in the popular vote. Both main parties had been expected to fall well short of the majority needed to claim power outright.
But as the counting continued through the night and well into Friday, all signs pointed to an emphatic margin in favor of the Conservatives and Cameron, who is expected to return for another term at 10 Downing Street.
The result was a major disappointment for *Labor, which had thought it was within striking distance of ousting Cameron after five years of Tory rule. It was also a bitter blow for the Liberal Democrats, who paid a steep price for having entered into a coalition with the Conservatives.
Meanwhile, in the election’s other stunning development, though one that had been predicted, the Scottish National Party (SNP) was redrawing the map of Scotland with a historic rout in what has long been one of Labor's most reliable strongholds .
Exit polls released by the BBC just after voting ended predicted that the Conservatives would win 316 seats in the 650-member Parliament, compared with just 239 for Labor. The results shocked most political analysts, and party leaders greeted the numbers with considerable caution, if not outright *disdain.
But as one after another of the individual races reported results, there was growing acceptance that the exit polls had caught the mood of the voters far better than had the pre-election polls. With most seats accounted for, the BBC forecast Friday morning that the Conservatives would win 325 total seats. Because six members of the House of Commons do not traditionally vote, that would be enough for a working majority.
If they fall short, they would need the support of others to govern. But either way, they were expected to emerge in a far stronger position to begin to form a new government than nearly anyone had *predicted.
Another Conservative-led *government likely would mean doubling down on austerity for the British economy after years of belt-tightening, as well as a potentially divisive debate over Britain’s membership in the European Union ahead of a possible referendum in 2017. With the rise of the SNP, the results also presaged increased tensions between England and Scotland and renewed calls for Scottish independence.
Cameron spoke to those issues in Friday morning’s victory speech. He promised to continue his government’s efforts to eliminate the deficit and said a referendum on EU membership was one that “we must hold to decide Britain’s future in Europe.” He also promised to stand for “one nation, one United Kingdom. That is how I will govern.”
Leading Tories, as the Conservatives are known, had cautiously declared victory when the exit poll was announced late Thursday, saying their record in bringing the economy back from the depths of recession had been validated. *Labor Party leaders, meanwhile, attempted to put the best face on what looked to be a deeply disappointing result.
Such a wide Tory margin will leave Labor in an extremely difficult position. Miliband, who had won plaudits for his conduct during the campaign, had hoped to be able to form a minority government, even if it came in second in total seats, by relying on the votes of the SNP and possibly others.
But with Labor running poorly, Miliband was already facing serious questions about whether he can continue as the leader of the party. In his Friday speech, he called on the next government to “keep our country together,” noting the surge of nationalist sentiment in Scotland.
The counting continued into the early morning hours Friday, with final numbers not likely to be tabulated until midday. But the Tory expressions of delight with the result began Thursday evening.
“I’m celebrating,” said *Lawrence Worsley, a 48-year-old project manager, as he held a pint of beer high in the air at the Blue Boar, a swanky restaurant close to the Conservative headquarters in London.
“I think people who were undecided came to the polls and made their mind up at the last minute that it’s best to stick with what you know, something that has worked,” he said.
When the exit poll was announced on the BBC, a cluster of suited patrons watching on the restaurant’s big-screen televisions cheered, while others gasped audibly.
If the Tories fall short of an absolute majority, they will face a choice of whether to go into a formal coalition with other parties or to try to forge ahead with a minority government that wins support from allies on key votes. Whatever the final results, the Conservatives will find themselves trying to govern a country that is more regionally divided than it has been in many years.
Pre-election polls had predicted problems for the Liberal Democrats, but the collapse was even greater than anticipated. The exit poll projected that the party would end up with just 10 seats, down from 57 in 2010. Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was one of the few to retain his seat, but he called it “a cruel and punishing night” for his party and hinted that he might step down.
The SNP was on course to win nearly all of Scotland’s 59 seats, a staggering result in an area that has long been a bedrock of support for Labor.The result makes the SNP the third-largest party in the new Parliament behind the Conservatives and Labor.
The anti-immigration U.K. *Independence Party (UKIP) was running third in the overall national vote, but it was struggling under Britain’s first-past-the-post voting system to turn support into seats. The party had won just a single seat by 6 a.m., and party leader Nigel Farage was in an extremely tough race to claim a second. Farage has said he will step down as party leader if he loses.
The Green Party was predicted to win two seats.
Thursday’s results followed a campaign that laid bare fundamental questions about Britain’s identity that could become even more divisive in the years ahead. At a time of growing U.S. frustration with its closest ally, Britain may be drawn even further inward and away from global affairs.
The Scottish nationalists, suddenly a major player in London after Thursday’s vote, want to break up the United Kingdom — and have often used a Tory government that is unpopular among Scots as their strongest argument for independence.
UKIP has campaigned to take Britain out of the E.U. and is likely to use its toehold in the House of Commons to force the issue.
Before the campaign began, most analysts had expected that Cameron would coast to a relatively easy reelection, boosted by a recovering economy and a significantly higher favorability rating than Miliband.
But Miliband performed better than many expected in the harsh glare of the campaign, emphasizing the growing divide between rich and poor at a time of minimal wage growth and deep cuts to government assistance programs.
In the final days of the campaign, with the polls still tied, Cameron became more passionate on the campaign trail. He also became more negative, predicting that Labor would lead the country to economic calamity if voted into office.
That message appeared to have resonated, and may have turned the tide in his favor after weeks of political trench warfare that appeared to do little to move the polls.
After voting Tory in the tony North London neighborhood of Hampstead on Thursday, Norma Bainbridge said her decision came down to a single word: “money.”
“The Conservatives are quite clever with it,” said the 80-year-old. “Labor got rid of it. We were broke.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/conservatives-claim-decisive-win-in-british-election-defying-predictions/2015/05/08/4931f84e-f4f9-11e4-bca5-21b51bbdf93e_story.html?postshare=9411431065301432