UK Elections 2015

[comrade_general]

Does the Queen vote? Or does she just say "portugal this I'm the Queen!"?

[Othko97]

I believe the royals abstain from voting, but they could technically if they wanted.

[Jubal]

I think the Queen is banned by convention, other royals could but don't.

[Glaurung]

As I understand it (and with more waffle than Jubal) ...

In the UK, the reigning monarch doesn't vote in elections. This is based on the constitutional principle that the monarch is neutral and does not intervene in any part of the political process. Also, from a theoretical perspective, the election is called and the MPs are summoned so that they can speak on behalf of the people to the monarch, so it would kind of inconsistent for the monarch to be involved in the selection of an MP.

Other members of the royal family are not restricted in the same way as the monarch, so I think they can vote, but I suspect they don't, on the grounds that they too should be seen to be politically neutral.

[Pentagathus]

Seems we'll be having another tory gubment, I expect many of my scottish friends to be delightfully furious. Voted lib dem in the end, might as well have pissed in the ballot box though.

[Glaurung]

Seems we'll be having another tory gubment,

And this one, alas, will not be restrained by the LibDems.

I expect many of my scottish friends to be delightfully furious.

Along with about half the electorate south of the border.

Voted lib dem in the end, might as well have pissed in the ballot box though.

Isn't first-past-the-post wonderful?

[Clockwork]

The fact that SNP are doing as well as they are is garnering a fair amount of anti-Scottish sentiment, at least around here. Then again there is anti-most-things sentiment around here, apart from gays we don't mind those, even have a gay-friendly rubgy team...whatever that means.

On Queenie voting; http://www.royal.gov.uk/MonarchUK/QueenandGovernment/Queenandvoting.aspx. It basically says she can vote as Queen but not as head of state (which she also is, so therefore can't vote), other Royals can but don't.

[Jubal]

Results thoughts:

Oh portugal oh portugal oh portugal.

Which is to say: Tory majority for the first time since the 1990s, but a fragile one so it won't even have the advantage of stability, whilst the Scots Nats have totally swept the board up North, Labour have been flattened, except in the few cases where Labour were fighting really good long-serving progressive candidates from other parties where they seem to have done wonderfully. It's not even a good result for the independent right, with UKIP probably reduced to just Clacton.

Eight liberals. Eight.

Good luck to all of us trying to keep our net neutrality and encrypted communications over the next 5 years, we're really, really going to need it.

[Clockwork]

I thought you'd be happy that UKIP lost so badly? At least the economy won't get any worse, may even get a bit better.

[Flamekebab]

I'm glad I have citizenship elsewhere.

[Jubal]

The UKIP comment was me attempting neutrality.

I'm happy to see UKIP not make gains, but I'd happily have swapped any of the main UKIP against for another 5-6 Lib Dem holds. Cambridge was only 600 votes away from returning Julian Huppert, but Labour got in instead. I honestly think this cock up is mostly Labour's fault, instead of attacking the Tories and making an alternative case they seemed to focus campaigning on LD and PC and so on. End result, Labour screw over their potential allies, who lose leads seats they were defending versus the Tories.

[Pentagathus]

The fact that SNP are doing as well as they are is garnering a fair amount of anti-Scottish sentiment, at least around here. Then again there is anti-most-things sentiment around here, apart from gays we don't mind those, even have a gay-friendly rubgy team...whatever that means.

Maybe it just means they really enjoy team showers.
I'm not sure why there's so much anti-SNP feeling in england, maybe because people think of BNP when they hear nationalist party? IIRC the SNP got less than 50% of the total votes in scotland so they are significantly overrepresented in westminster. Nationally they have less votes than UKIP. So yes indeed Glaurung, what a wonderful voting system 
Will be quite interesting to see where this government leads though since I've not actually experienced a Tory majority government (well not since I was 3 or 4 or whatever.)
Also I guess we might be needing a thread debating the merits of EU membership sometime soonish.

[Clockwork]

Fair enough Jub. I was actually quite surprised at how many UKIP switched straight back to tory, I would have thought a few more would stay on. Our local guy is great though, might be one of the few tories even you might not outright hate He got 58% and deservedly so imo, he's done a lot of stuff for disabled kids, pensioners and the like. Voting went exactly as I guessed it would with Lab on 18%, UKIP on 16% LD on 4% and Green on 3%. Yes that makes 99%.

Anti-SNP feeling in England is more along the lines of, paraphrasing here, "Why the portugal should Scotland hold any sort of power when they're 8.3% of the population with a party that wants what's best for that 8.3% and sod the rest?" Personally I'd rather they leave the UK.

EDIT: There's this if you feel it'll do anything Penty. https://secure.avaaz.org/en/uk_electoral_reform_11/?bTFLcab&v=58011

[Pentagathus]

Well they wouldn't have held much power even if labour had needed them to pass legislation as a minority, they would have been too worried about losing support if they caused instability in an anti tory government. Also they could and would easily be outvoted on any policies that affect scotland alone. I know plenty of people voted SNP as they see them as a viable socialist party rather than because of nationalist tendencies.
Still I didn't vote for them because they're going to continue to push for independence and because I would have rather had another Tory-lib dem coalition than labour I think. Was still making my mind up on my way the polling station tbh.
Edit:
Signed the petition, not sure it will have any effect considering that we had a referendum on FPTP after the last general election anyway. Also am rather disappointed about Huppert losing his seat, he sounded like a genuinely very decent MP.

[Othko97]

I don't support UKIP, but 4 million votes, 12.5% of the electorate, for one seat is a disgrace to the name of democracy.

On another note Theresa May has already said:

"A conservative government would be giving the security agencies and law enforcement agencies the powers that they need to ensure they're keeping up to date as people communicate with communications data. We were prevented from bringing in that legislation into the last government because of the coalitions with the Lib Dems and we are determined to bring that through because we believe that is necessary to maintain the capabilities of our law enforcement agencies so they can continue to do the excellent job day in day out of keeping us safe and secure"

God help us all...