What a little shock to the
political landscape of the UK that this election has turned out to be. Almost all the experts (including the press)
had predicted over the last few weeks and months that we were in for another
coalition, or at least not a majority for either parties (Hung Parliament). But
after months of speculation and a sleepless night for some, the final results
declare that the Conservative party has won 331 seats to form a majority government and the return of Prime Minister David Cameron to Downing street.
The main shock was the Labour Party (Lab) and the Liberal Democrats (Lib Dems) dismal showing with 232 and 8 respectively.
One of the reasons for Labour losing or not gaining seats was due to the
dissatisfaction of Scottish voters in constituencies that have usually been a
strong hold for the party, and another, been the leadership not succeeding in
persuading the public that Labour can balance the books, whilst solving social
issues faced by this country. Although, I thought I would give them a go. As
for the Lib Dems, they had a hard task of keeping loyal voters and trying to
gain new ones, especially after been in a coalition with the Conservatives for
the last five years, which has been a mixed experience for both the party and
the UK in general.
The least surprising outcome was in
Scotland, as on the back of increasing nationalism north of the border, the Scottish National Party (SNP), managed to gain 58 seats. With that result, I
predict that we will see another independence referendum by our Scottish
sisters and brother in the near future, which I sadly say, and hope does not
happen is a breakup of the Union. In other results, the Green party have
managed to retain 1 seat, although I thought they might have got more, but environmental
and it seems hard to solve social issues are not on peoples priorities at the
moment.
The good news in this election, has
been that the United Kingdom
Independence Party (UKIP) have only got 1 seat. All this country and the world needs right now is a party that are pregitest, and who have no policies or ideas that solve economic or social
issues, except blame immigrants and non-white people for the problems facing
this country. At least one
UKIP politician can’t do much damage in the Commons. On a related issue
concerning UKIP, has been the party’s insistence on the UK leaving the European
Union (EU). With such a bad showing at the election, hopefully the Conservatives are less scared of UKIP now, and will reassess the promise made
that the UK will have a yes/no referendum on the EU (yes, all parties and Prime
Ministers break some promises, that’s an aspect of governing), and instead work
with the EU and the other member states to negotiate reforms, that will be in
the best interest of all.
As we come to the end of another
election campaign, we have to feel for Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg, who took the
their ideas (with some good and bad policies) to the voters and put up a good fight,
but on the day the majority of the electorate cast their ballots for the Conservative party, that hopefully will balance the books and bring further prosperity to the
people of the United Kingdom.
