Elections in the UK

[Admiral Valdemar]

Exit poll puts Tories at 307, Labour at 255 and Lib Dems at 59. No overall majority, hung Parliament outcome.

[Zac Naloen]

There has to be something wrong with that poll though, no way the libs are three seats down

[Admiral Valdemar]

It could happen. The "Clegg Effect" may have run out of steam and more people went for a fourth party, as it were. Our system is screwed up enough that winning votes matters only in certain constituencies.

[Zac Naloen]

Tell me about it, the best thing that could come from this election would be voter reform simply so that I can vote and have it mean something.

[D.Turtle]

According to 538.com the conservatives probably have an outright majority. They use a different model to calculate the number of seats each party takes. So far the more exact results coming out seem to affirm their results.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Labour's holding Washington and Sunderland. The Tories are just short of a majority still, according to the Beeb.

[Captain Seafort]

However, the first couple of results didn't match their exit polling, so that might not match the final result.

What could turn out to be interesting are the issues of people being turned away because they were queuing after ten or because the stations didn't have enough papers.

[TC27]

My polling station was very busy today and its usually almost dead - I think turnout will be massive.

Still think the Tories will just squeak it - remember they have the ten probable DUP seats in the bag aswell.

[D.Turtle]

Well, so far 538's model seems to be better than the standard uniform swing model used by everyone else (including BBC). 538.com have the conservatives taking about 340 seats (326 needed for majority).

[DaveJB]

Still think the Tories will just squeak it - remember they have the ten probable DUP seats in the bag aswell.

That prospect may well have been torpedoed, firstly because the DUP leader has been voted out of his seat, and secondly because polls are consistently showing the Conservatives getting about 310 seats, max, meaning that the DUP deal would no longer give them a majority. Unless Cameron feels like taking a chance with a minority government, it's likely going to a coalition with the Lib-Dems or nothing.

[Minischoles]

Still think the Tories will just squeak it - remember they have the ten probable DUP seats in the bag aswell.

That prospect may well have been torpedoed, firstly because the DUP leader has been voted out of his seat, and secondly because polls are consistently showing the Conservatives getting about 310 seats, max, meaning that the DUP deal would no longer give them a majority. Unless Cameron feels like taking a chance with a minority government, it's likely going to a coalition with the Lib-Dems or nothing.

It's looking more and more likely as the night goes on that we're going to see a coalition government between Labour and Lib Dems - Lib Dems are pretty incompatible with the Tories EU stance. Hopefully this kind of result will cause some kind of electoral reform, because it'll pretty much mean the losers of the election winning.

[Guardsman Bass]

100 seats to go, according to the BBC's Tracker.

Do the Liberal Democrats have many of their areas coming up in the last 100 seats? So far, they're actually down seats.

[Patrick Degan]

Somebody at news.bbc.co.uk has a wry sense of humour, posting this image:



with the caption "Civil servants would help smooth negotiations between parties" underneath it.

[The Defenestrator]

Watching this election really drove home for me how important electoral reform is for the Lib Dems. They're getting almost 25% of the votes, but they've got only a handful of seats compared to the big two parties. They're trailing Labour by 6% but they have less than a quarter of the number of seats.

[CJvR]

Somebody at news.bbc.co.uk has a wry sense of humour, posting this image:



with the caption "Civil servants would help smooth negotiations between parties" underneath it.

Nice to know that the best TV show ever is still up to date on UK politics...

[DaveJB]

It's now official that the Tories can't win an overall majority. There's still 35 seats to be declared, so it remains to be seen exactly how much they're going to be short by.

[Big Orange]

Watching this election really drove home for me how important electoral reform is for the Lib Dems. They're getting almost 25% of the votes, but they've got only a handful of seats compared to the big two parties. They're trailing Labour by 6% but they have less than a quarter of the number of seats.

Other things that need to be reformed is to hold the day of voting at a less awkward time (hell even make it a holiday) and open the polling stations from miday to midnight (large crowds of voters waiting for hours have been turned away in some constituencies).

[Vendetta]

Other things that need to be reformed is to hold the day of voting at a less awkward time (hell even make it a holiday) and open the polling stations from miday to midnight (large crowds of voters waiting for hours have been turned away in some constituencies).

The current opening hours should be lengthened, but they should stay open early mornings.

Although given that our polling station was open 7am-10pm as is, there really should be no excuses to not be able to get there in a 13 hour window.

And yes, make polling day a holiday.

[Crazedwraith]

7am to 10pm is a 15 hour window, Vendetta.

Was reading the BBC article about the Queen's role. Apparently she can;t make any decisions herself. The politicians have to agree who's won among themselves... This could take a while.

[Vendetta]

7am to 10pm is a 15 hour window, Vendetta.

With maths skills like that I should be in parliament.

[Stofsk]

You guys should have it on Saturday like we do. It's a weekend, so the majority of people won't be working.

[Sinewmire]

Our system is screwed up enough that winning votes matters only in certain constituencies.

Hell yeah, apparently actual vots-wise, Labour have 29% Lib Dems have 23% IIRC (as of lunchtimeish) and yet Labour have 200 more seats in parliament. You can see why they want to bring in Proportional Representation.

[weemadando]

You guys should have it on Saturday like we do. It's a weekend, so the majority of people won't be working.

It never ceases to amaze me how completely incompetent and useless the electoral processes and agencies of other western democracies are.

[TC27]

The mix up at the polling station is pretty embarrassing TBH though if you do turn up at 9.45pm and theres a queu is not unreasonable to expectr to be turned away surely?

A Lib Dem/Labour coalition still wont have the majority and they will have to rope in mutliple small parties - cant see it surviving many confidence votes!

I think Cameron will give the Lib Dems a couple of days to decide if he's dangling a big enough carrot then he will just form a minority goverment.

[Crazedwraith]

Cameron can't actually do squat until Brown official resigns you know. And unwritten rules tend to give the incumbent PM first shot at forming government.

It's sad Clegg seems to have made silly election promises here. A Lab/Lib-Dem can out vote the Torys and may be actually reform the system. Surely reform is much more important to the Lib Dems than what ever little commonalities they have with the torys. Which is what? Some minor points on education?