Who did you vote for?
We asked a number of voters to explain the political earthquake that shook the UK last week and to say what the opposition parties should do next.
We asked a number of voters to explain the political earthquake that shook the UK last week and to say what the opposition parties should do next.
By David Yarrow
The polls got it wrong – support for the Conservative Party was under-reported. The election produced a slim Tory majority. This majority was delivered by a moderate leader much closer to the centre ground than his backbenchers. Britain’s relationship with Europe subsequently becomes the defining issue of the Parliament, bitterly dividing the right. And five years down the road the Conservatives suffer their biggest electoral defeat since 1945. This is a description of the 1992 United Kingdom general election, but it could well prove a fairly good approximation of the outcome of the 2015 election too.
Big win for UK Prime Minister David Cameron. His Conservative Party controls 331 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons and can govern on its own. Huge losses for the former government coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, and disappointing results for Labour. The Scottish Nationalists establish unquestionable predominance North of “the Border”. UKIP hopes do…