The polls did not move during the campaign. But the voters WERE moving. Several of us were telling people. We were poo-pooed as hearing what we wanted to hear.
NO WE FUCKING WEREN'T! There was a huge resource here that was totally ignored in favour of the polls. The polls that we told you were broken.
Feeling down but Cameron will be exposed without the Lib Dem cover.
326 is a majority in theory - but there will be attrition, as there always is. The problem for Cameron is that there is no party of significant numbers who can (or probably would) go with him. He also has major headaches in the Economy, the West Lothian Question, Scottish nationalism and the European Referendum.
The UK is probably much weaker now than it was 24 hours ago.
Probably, although unfortunately I cannot see that any potential outcome would have made it particularlt strong, given some of the fundamentals, only less weak.
The polls did not move during the campaign. But the voters WERE moving. Several of us were telling people. We were poo-pooed as hearing what we wanted to hear.
NO WE FUCKING WEREN'T! There was a huge resource here that was totally ignored in favour of the polls. The polls that we told you were broken.
I'm a novice at this stuff but even I have been saying for a while now to ignore the polls, I forecast 301 Tory Mp's and didn't expect to be on the downside, in fact my biggest bet is Tory minority government and I am shocked that it looks like losing but in a good way.
DavidL Major won a majority of 21 and 14 million votes after 13 years in power, Cameron has only been in 5 years and if he has a majority it will be in single figures, it was a good result but not quite the same
Dair The Tories will be forming the government not the SNP, and they held their seat in Scotland, so it was a good night for the SNP but in no way did the Tories lose
Sounds like a significant change of circumstances.
Laura Kuenssberg Chief correspondent, Newsnight Posted at 08:35 The Balls moment - the one many people, maybe most, will remember. The political bruiser fighting back tears, talking with obvious passion and concern for his party. Loved and loathed, maybe in equal measure, as a political colleague and opponent he was probably universally respected. The scalp of such a big Labour figure, such a big part of Ed Miliband's team, surely must hasten the departure of the leader himself out of the door.
Well, I knew Labour would be comfortably beaten but this is a surprise. The Midlands and London are the two places I know, Scotland was easy, but I thought Labour would do better in the NW.
The Tories deserve to enjoy themselves this weekend, then it gets serious: they have a country to save. Let's hope it is not too late.
Yes indeed Southam, and I don't think they can do it. The Euro referendum has all the hallmarks of the event that will kill the Union. In my heart of hearts this result isn't a surprise although the scale goes beyond what I expected. The complete lack of enthusiasm did scream 1992, and the voters have gone for the devil they know.
Labour needs to reflect properly on where it went wrong and what it stands for in the C21, and take time to choose a new leader. Having a couple of credible female candidates would be a very good start. With a Nicola Sturgeon type in charge who could actually communicate with ordinary people, they could have been at parity in this election.
I'm afraid that the unions are a massive millstone round Labour's neck. They are backward looking and unwilling to challenge comfortable beliefs forged many decades ago. Labour needs to start again, but can't because of the unions.
I'm not sure I share this view but leaving that to one side, the Conservatives are up half a percentage point in votes and have swept to victory. This was won by Jim Messina and the voter-targetting boffins imo.
FPTP has swung back to favour the Tories, that is for sure; but Labour was never a credible alternative government and EdM was an abysmal leader. How does that change next time when the people who put Ed in charge carry so much weight?
what will unite do is the big question for labour. Can they carry the public whilst being in hock to the unions?
The unions are the problem because they are so conservative and backward looking. They do great work for their members, but politically they inhabit a country far away from most English people. And that prevents Labour from asking the questions of itself that it has to ask in order to be a credible alternative. NHS and "the Tories" is nowhere near enough, no matter how comforting it is.
Fairly obvious - The pollsters had picked up that Cameron was the preferred prime minister by 52% to 31%. That was presumably the fact that stopped tory leakage in the marginals. Where he wasn't liked (North East Mainly) Labour did pretty well. (And without that exit poll there would have been a lot of people with much shorter fingernails this morning.)
Also the popularity of the coalition kept improving in the polls whilst the party figures said otherwise.
The polls did not move during the campaign. But the voters WERE moving. Several of us were telling people. We were poo-pooed as hearing what we wanted to hear.
NO WE FUCKING WEREN'T! There was a huge resource here that was totally ignored in favour of the polls. The polls that we told you were broken.
Tories nearly 6% ahead now in the national vote share. Pollsters looking very very stupid.
That pro-Labour swing in the opinion polls this week has totally f'cked the polling companies credibility.
I am though a little baffled as to how a level headed man like PtP thought his canvassing experiences in Broxtowe were much better for Labour than those in 2010.
Wait for some more detail on what happened (especially exit poll detail). It may have just been a swing on the day - you only need 3% of all voters to switch to turn Con 33.5 - Lab 33.5 into Con 36.5 - Lab 30.5.
Anecdotally, we've had Nick Palmer here reporting people who'd said they'd support Lab changing their minds, and Jack Straw was saying something similar on Sky earlier.
This election is the pinnacle of Lynton Crosby's career. Without question.
Expect to see him working for a Republican next year. He's done an amazing job for the Tories today, he's got a great record for the Liberals (Conservatives) in Australia. I doubted some of his tactics, he's been well and truly vindicated.
If I'd have followed through with my paper trade yesterday afternoon (selling the cons winning margin over Lab for £1k per seat @ 20), i'd have lost ~£75k.
Re the pollsters, it looks like the final result will have the Tories ahead by 6%.
The polls generally had it neck and neck, some slightly the Tories ahead.
Allowing for margin of error and a late late late swing it isn't a disaster per se.
Yes it is. The worst polling result since 1992, arguably even worse. The narrative (and a thousand threads) dominated by polls that were simply wrong. Yougov in particular really need to start again but ICM will also be concerned by their last 2 polls.
Go forward 5 years. Labour in the lead. Who will believe it? No one.
If, as many argue, the Tories won on the massive voter preference for Dave as PM over Ed, the hate-filled 'Bullingdon toff' line of attack would seem to be holed below the waterline. The British are not attracted to haters. Evidently.
Here is an indicator of Northern Ireland politics. Conservatives stood in 16 of 18 constituencies and won 1.3 per cent. Ukip stood in only 10 constituencies and won double the Tory vote.
Allowing for margin of error and a late late late swing it isn't a disaster per se.
All due respect Eagles - but that's a crock. This was a polling disaster. The point of polling is to be able to predict results. They completely sucked. Fundamental rethink on methods and messages is needed.
If Labour had held onto every one of their 41 Scottish seats, they still would have lost this election, and there'd still be a Tory maj/close to a Tory maj.
Those that criticised the Tory campaign (and I include myself) have to give credit for something truly incredible here. Cameron went on the attack looking for the seats that he needed for the majority. I criticised him for it yesterday morning bemoaning the fact that he spent so long in Lib Dem seats instead of seeking to protect the seats he was going to lose to Labour.
He was absolutely spot on. Incredibly so. Just an amazing result. This eclipses Major's result in 1992. Cameron has done something almost everyone, including me, thought was impossible.
Someone needs to explain how the Tories won.
If they won by creating an English Nationalism where hatred of Scotland is the priority, then perhaps that might not be what you want./
That's the response of a bitter loser - just like Labour speakers. It's much easier for them to do that than consider what they did wrong.
Scotland won. 56 out of 59 MPs. Tories lost, Labour lost, Lib Dems need to be removed from being a "Major Party". UKIP need to be removed from being a "Major Party". Greens did on. SNP won the election.
There has been a significant change off circumstances.
How have we lost? We're up in MPs and have an overall majority. Take your head out of your arse and stop inspecting the Scottish navel - your MPs aren't relevant. Your "progressive alliance" lost.
It gives the SNP a Significant change of circumstances.
This election is the pinnacle of Lynton Crosby's career. Without question.
Expect to see him working for a Republican next year. He's done an amazing job for the Tories today, he's got a great record for the Liberals (Conservatives) in Australia. I doubted some of his tactics, he's been well and truly vindicated.
Those that criticised the Tory campaign (and I include myself) have to give credit for something truly incredible here. Cameron went on the attack looking for the seats that he needed for the majority. I criticised him for it yesterday morning bemoaning the fact that he spent so long in Lib Dem seats instead of seeking to protect the seats he was going to lose to Labour.
He was absolutely spot on. Incredibly so. Just an amazing result. This eclipses Major's result in 1992. Cameron has done something almost everyone, including me, thought was impossible.
Someone needs to explain how the Tories won.
If they won by creating an English Nationalism where hatred of Scotland is the priority, then perhaps that might not be what you want./
That's the response of a bitter loser - just like Labour speakers. It's much easier for them to do that than consider what they did wrong.
Scotland won. 56 out of 59 MPs. Tories lost, Labour lost, Lib Dems need to be removed from being a "Major Party". UKIP need to be removed from being a "Major Party". Greens did on. SNP won the election.
There has been a significant change off circumstances.
How have we lost? We're up in MPs and have an overall majority. Take your head out of your arse and stop inspecting the Scottish navel - your MPs aren't relevant. Your "progressive alliance" lost.
The SNP got exactly the result it wanted in both Scotland and the UK.
Those that criticised the Tory campaign (and I include myself) have to give credit for something truly incredible here. Cameron went on the attack looking for the seats that he needed for the majority. I criticised him for it yesterday morning bemoaning the fact that he spent so long in Lib Dem seats instead of seeking to protect the seats he was going to lose to Labour.
He was absolutely spot on. Incredibly so. Just an amazing result. This eclipses Major's result in 1992. Cameron has done something almost everyone, including me, thought was impossible.
Someone needs to explain how the Tories won.
If they won by creating an English Nationalism where hatred of Scotland is the priority, then perhaps that might not be what you want./
That's the response of a bitter loser - just like Labour speakers. It's much easier for them to do that than consider what they did wrong.
Scotland won. 56 out of 59 MPs. Tories lost, Labour lost, Lib Dems need to be removed from being a "Major Party". UKIP need to be removed from being a "Major Party". Greens did on. SNP won the election.
There has been a significant change off circumstances.
How have we lost? We're up in MPs and have an overall majority. Take your head out of your arse and stop inspecting the Scottish navel - your MPs aren't relevant. Your "progressive alliance" lost.
It gives the SNP a Significant change of circumstances.
Yes you've gone from a minor party in opposition to a two party government, to a minor party in opposition to a one party government. Congrats!
What I found bizarre yesterday was the amaterishness of some tellers. My station was handling two wards so it made everything a real clusterfuck when voters turned up without cards/or went to the wrong entrance.
I was on my feet and encouraging/explaining for 10hrs along with a variety of LD tellers who didn't have much gift of the gab and were far too keen to ask for a polling card number first. I think I gained details from about 95% of voters in mine.
Tellers at the other entrance stood around talking to each other - sitting about, and taking numbers for voters in my ward - their returns must have been crap and really annoyed those who'd queued only to be told to come to our entrance instead.
If you can't do such a simple task well - what's the point for the rest of team out knocking up?
Those of us that mastered VoteSource and used it wisely got the greatest returns - South Norfolk - 30000 Cons votes and 20000 majority. That doesn't happen by itself. It was a big risk for the Tories to roll-out the poll-day module on the day before but Wow! it worked!
The polls did not move during the campaign. But the voters WERE moving. Several of us were telling people. We were poo-pooed as hearing what we wanted to hear.
NO WE FUCKING WEREN'T! There was a huge resource here that was totally ignored in favour of the polls. The polls that we told you were broken.
Well done. And congrats for all your hard work.
Thanks for that. It really feels worth it this morning!
Tories nearly 6% ahead now in the national vote share. Pollsters looking very very stupid.
That pro-Labour swing in the opinion polls this week has totally f'cked the polling companies credibility.
I am though a little baffled as to how a level headed man like PtP thought his canvassing experiences in Broxtowe were much better for Labour than those in 2010.
Wait for some more detail on what happened (especially exit poll detail). It may have just been a swing on the day - you only need 3% of all voters to switch to turn Con 33.5 - Lab 33.5 into Con 36.5 - Lab 30.5.
Anecdotally, we've had Nick Palmer here reporting people who'd said they'd support Lab changing their minds, and Jack Straw was saying something similar on Sky earlier.
Labour middle-class activists thinking nice WWC people would never lie to them about voting Labour when they were actually supporting UKIP
Scott_P Posts: 8,921 May 7 Civic duty done, once I found the Polling Station, which was NOT where I left it last time.
Turnout described as "steady"
Predictions.
The betting markets are wrong. They were last time, they will be this time.
The polls are wrong. The clustering around a statistical tie will not I think be the final result.
The pundits are wrong. The seat calculators are probably not sophisticated enough to compensate for UNS, incumbency and the Jockalypse Now.
So, Tories most votes (just) most seats (just), Cameron carries on a dares the others to vote down the Queen's Speech (which they do). He resigns as PM, Party leader and MP. Ed takes over.
Nicola votes down Ed's first budget (just to show she can).
The next set of GDP figures were probably going to be ugly anyway, but will be worse. Interest rates hike. Let's not forget Greece
Any internal Tory fight is completely masked by public outrage at Ed getting bitchslapped
Those that criticised the Tory campaign (and I include myself) have to give credit for something truly incredible here. Cameron went on the attack looking for the seats that he needed for the majority. I criticised him for it yesterday morning bemoaning the fact that he spent so long in Lib Dem seats instead of seeking to protect the seats he was going to lose to Labour.
He was absolutely spot on. Incredibly so. Just an amazing result. This eclipses Major's result in 1992. Cameron has done something almost everyone, including me, thought was impossible.
Someone needs to explain how the Tories won.
If they won by creating an English Nationalism where hatred of Scotland is the priority, then perhaps that might not be what you want./
That's the response of a bitter loser - just like Labour speakers. It's much easier for them to do that than consider what they did wrong.
Scotland won. 56 out of 59 MPs. Tories lost, Labour lost, Lib Dems need to be removed from being a "Major Party". UKIP need to be removed from being a "Major Party". Greens did on. SNP won the election.
There has been a significant change off circumstances.
How have we lost? We're up in MPs and have an overall majority. Take your head out of your arse and stop inspecting the Scottish navel - your MPs aren't relevant. Your "progressive alliance" lost.
The SNP got exactly the result it wanted in both Scotland and the UK.
Pretty sure the SNP would have prefered if labour could have made it with their help...
"I heard your relly on the radio this a.m. came across well, but very strange to think he IS the Scottish Labour party in Westminster."
Isn't that the strangest thing. From getting chosen for the seat only six weeks before the last election because the previous incumbent had to resign to winning the seat with the smallest majority in Scotland to being the only one still standing and now in all probability ending up Shadow Scottish Secretary!
Obviously good night for the tories, wiped out the lib dems south of the trent.
Mixed night for labour, net gains in england but not enough to offset the bad losses in Scotland. It's not a total wipeout and it's a good base to build from. Get a proper leader willing to put in the hard yards and victory in 2020 looks likely. The brand is still strong.
Lib Dem and UKIP the big losers of the night; the insurgent purple peoples army was routed by the voting system, and failed to breakthrough everywhere. Farange's career is over. Carswell must be regretting his defection.
Last euros will be the historical highpoint for them
@paulmasonnews: Whole Labour inner circle knows problem: if New Lab stage coup Unite leaves and you get an English Syriza, possibly with more money than Lab
Re the pollsters, it looks like the final result will have the Tories ahead by 6%.
The polls generally had it neck and neck, some slightly the Tories ahead.
Allowing for margin of error and a late late late swing it isn't a disaster per se.
But you can only play the MOE card every so often (one time in 20?) and it should operate in both directions; not when you've been plumb wrong in the same direction almost every bloody night for 5 years.
Seriously this site has needed to be a lot more critical of, and distanced from, the pollsters for a long time.
If Labour had held onto every one of their 41 Scottish seats, they still would have lost this election, and there'd still be a Tory maj/close to a Tory maj.
Astonishing.
Hasnt stopped the Labouristas pretending its all Scotland's fault.
David Herdson was campaigning in Morley and Outwood.
David Herdson = PBer of the year
Much as I would like to claim some credit, I did very little campaigning in Morley & Outwood and spent the great majority of my time in Wakefield. I doubt it had a significant impact but the spirited if short campaign we fought may have diluted some of Labour's manpower in M&O. It has certainly kept Wakefield in the game for the next election, particularly as it should now be fought under the revised boundaries in 2020.
Having won POTY once, I'd decline any further nominations but I would point out that in my piece last week I did point out that there was a much greater chance than was commonly being assumed of both a disastrous Lib Dem performance and an excellent Tory one (for balance, I also said that there was a chance of a very good Labour one too, though I don't regret that given that the basic proposition that the polls were unreliable was right).
@paulmasonnews: Whole Labour inner circle knows problem: if New Lab stage coup Unite leaves and you get an English Syriza, possibly with more money than Lab
Yet they need to be more new labour to get and attract middle england.
We need a total re-write of polling methods and the BPC need an urgent independent enquiry. Make no mistake, this is an unmitigated polling cock up.
From memory the BBC poll of polls was showing something like: Tory 34, Lab 33, UKIP 13. LD 8 and the actual looks like Tory 36, Lab 31, UKIP 13, LD 8 which is within MoE. It's FPTP which makes the seats results such a lottery.
Those that criticised the Tory campaign (and I include myself) have to give credit for something truly incredible here. Cameron went on the attack looking for the seats that he needed for the majority. I criticised him for it yesterday morning bemoaning the fact that he spent so long in Lib Dem seats instead of seeking to protect the seats he was going to lose to Labour.
He was absolutely spot on. Incredibly so. Just an amazing result. This eclipses Major's result in 1992. Cameron has done something almost everyone, including me, thought was impossible.
Someone needs to explain how the Tories won.
If they won by creating an English Nationalism where hatred of Scotland is the priority, then perhaps that might not be what you want./
That's the response of a bitter loser - just like Labour speakers. It's much easier for them to do that than consider what they did wrong.
Scotland won. 56 out of 59 MPs. Tories lost, Labour lost, Lib Dems need to be removed from being a "Major Party". UKIP need to be removed from being a "Major Party". Greens did on. SNP won the election.
There has been a significant change off circumstances.
How have we lost? We're up in MPs and have an overall majority. Take your head out of your arse and stop inspecting the Scottish navel - your MPs aren't relevant. Your "progressive alliance" lost.
The SNP got exactly the result it wanted in both Scotland and the UK.
One of Dave;s first acts at PMQs should be to thank Alex Salmond
We need a total re-write of polling methods and the BPC need an urgent independent enquiry. Make no mistake, this is an unmitigated polling cock up.
From memory the BBC poll of polls was showing something like: Tory 34, Lab 33, UKIP 13. LD 8 and the actual looks like Tory 36, Lab 31, UKIP 13, LD 8 which is within MoE. It's FPTP which makes the seats results such a lottery.
But a result at the extreme of the MOE should only have a 5% chance of occurring. Given every polling company predicted a similar result, the odds are miniscule (0.05)^8
The polls were quite wrong. I've no idea why but the above article gives some enigmatic pointer to this Mr Fisher perhaps knowing why.
Leaving the polls aside - its clear that Cameron played a blinder. He, the tories and Crosby, knew what they were doing. Firts up - the debates... Oh how all the anti Cameron idiots lambasted him for that. how right he was. How right the Tories were. Can anyone see how the election might just have turned out if he had meekly agreed to Con Lab LD and UKIP for the format??
All the talk of the tory campaign being cr@p was itself a load of odure. The very first image of this campaign (as I pointed out) was that the Labour party would be in the pocket of a far left SNP who wanted to break up the UK and / or syphon of cash to Scotland and scrap Trident. It stuck. Because it was true. Labour lost because of the failure of their own warped devolution settlement. The LDs collapsed because they spent 5 years trying to be in govt and not accepting the compromises that that entails. They spent 5 years being in govt and opposing it at the same time.
Gawd help Labour if they pick Mrs Balls as leader. They stand now on the threshold of another monumental mistake. A big problem they have now is that they do not know who will be Tory leader in 2020.
Obviously good night for the tories, wiped out the lib dems south of the trent.
Mixed night for labour, net gains in england but not enough to offset the bad losses in Scotland. It's not a total wipeout and it's a good base to build from. Get a proper leader willing to put in the hard yards and victory in 2020 looks likely. The brand is still strong.
Lib Dem and UKIP the big losers of the night; the insurgent purple peoples army was routed by the voting system, and failed to breakthrough everywhere. Farange's career is over. Carswell must be regretting his defection.
Last euros will be the historical highpoint for them
Vote gone from 3% to 12%, think you need to put prejudices to one side as it costs you money.
@paulmasonnews: Whole Labour inner circle knows problem: if New Lab stage coup Unite leaves and you get an English Syriza, possibly with more money than Lab
That pretty much sums it up - though I suspect a centre left party shorn of Unite would attract a fair few hefty donations from sources that currently keep their wallets shut.
Comments
Speaking of which, when is Tower Hamlets declaring?
Ashford, Dover, Faversham, Sevenoaks, T&M, T Wells, Dartford, Sitt & Shep, Roch & Strood off the top of my head. All blue of course! ;-)
Didn't expect the results out of NI
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/constituencies/E14000650
Anecdotally, we've had Nick Palmer here reporting people who'd said they'd support Lab changing their minds, and Jack Straw was saying something similar on Sky earlier.
If I'd have followed through with my paper trade yesterday afternoon (selling the cons winning margin over Lab for £1k per seat @ 20), i'd have lost ~£75k.
My punting credibility is in tatters.
Go forward 5 years. Labour in the lead. Who will believe it? No one.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2015/results
The ultimate unwinding of the Gordon Brown treasury team that fouled-up the economy and this morning topped-off by the loss of Kirkaldy.
The true end of an era. And no bad thing
Astonishing.
Lamb v Farron for Lib Dem leader.
Didn't expect to see them sub 10, mind.
I was on my feet and encouraging/explaining for 10hrs along with a variety of LD tellers who didn't have much gift of the gab and were far too keen to ask for a polling card number first. I think I gained details from about 95% of voters in mine.
Tellers at the other entrance stood around talking to each other - sitting about, and taking numbers for voters in my ward - their returns must have been crap and really annoyed those who'd queued only to be told to come to our entrance instead.
If you can't do such a simple task well - what's the point for the rest of team out knocking up?
However if Bercow is deposed and then joins Lab then that costs Con a seat and thus majority falls by 2.
Don't think Con can afford to throw a seat away.
"I heard your relly on the radio this a.m. came across well, but very strange to think he IS the Scottish Labour party in Westminster."
Isn't that the strangest thing. From getting chosen for the seat only six weeks before the last election because the previous incumbent had to resign to winning the seat with the smallest majority in Scotland to being the only one still standing and now in all probability ending up Shadow Scottish Secretary!
He'll probably get knocked down by a milk float
Mixed night for labour, net gains in england but not enough to offset the bad losses in Scotland. It's not a total wipeout and it's a good base to build from. Get a proper leader willing to put in the hard yards and victory in 2020 looks likely. The brand is still strong.
Lib Dem and UKIP the big losers of the night; the insurgent purple peoples army was routed by the voting system, and failed to breakthrough everywhere. Farange's career is over. Carswell must be regretting his defection.
Last euros will be the historical highpoint for them
Labour just held Halifax...majority of less than 500
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/constituencies/E14000723
Reminds me of the 478 Labour majority in 1992.
Seriously this site has needed to be a lot more critical of, and distanced from, the pollsters for a long time.
Go out and go canvassing at the next election.
It is bloody great fun.
" RICHARD
I think Labour will win here but suspect it could be closer than expected – say 2000 majority.
Balls strikes me as something of a cold fish and will struggle in an area like this filled with ambitious, independently minded working class voters.
Long term this will be won by the Conservatives the next time they win an overall majority.
July 18th, 2007 at 1:11 pm "
Having won POTY once, I'd decline any further nominations but I would point out that in my piece last week I did point out that there was a much greater chance than was commonly being assumed of both a disastrous Lib Dem performance and an excellent Tory one (for balance, I also said that there was a chance of a very good Labour one too, though I don't regret that given that the basic proposition that the polls were unreliable was right).
Labour are in crisis...
Tory 34, Lab 33, UKIP 13. LD 8 and the actual looks like
Tory 36, Lab 31, UKIP 13, LD 8
which is within MoE.
It's FPTP which makes the seats results such a lottery.
"Alex I couldn't have done it without you"
Centrica up 7%, SSE +5%, Lloyds +7% BARC +5% RBS +5.5%
7 retweets 0 favorites
Tories generating more wealth already
Course, that will be back on the table now the Tories have a majority...
ScotRef and the Coalition. Two more potent means to divide the left it is impossible to imagine.
Leaving the polls aside - its clear that Cameron played a blinder. He, the tories and Crosby, knew what they were doing. Firts up - the debates... Oh how all the anti Cameron idiots lambasted him for that. how right he was. How right the Tories were. Can anyone see how the election might just have turned out if he had meekly agreed to Con Lab LD and UKIP for the format??
All the talk of the tory campaign being cr@p was itself a load of odure.
The very first image of this campaign (as I pointed out) was that the Labour party would be in the pocket of a far left SNP who wanted to break up the UK and / or syphon of cash to Scotland and scrap Trident.
It stuck. Because it was true. Labour lost because of the failure of their own warped devolution settlement.
The LDs collapsed because they spent 5 years trying to be in govt and not accepting the compromises that that entails. They spent 5 years being in govt and opposing it at the same time.
Gawd help Labour if they pick Mrs Balls as leader. They stand now on the threshold of another monumental mistake. A big problem they have now is that they do not know who will be Tory leader in 2020.
London is fastest growing region of UK and is mainly Labour.
So level of unfairness is actually reducing.
A boundary review done now will help Con a bit but not as much as most people think.