Anyone else stay up nearly all night watching?

Some facinating results. Labour were right when they warned about voting Lib dem and waking up with a tory. A large swing from Labour to the Lib Dems (with only a very small swing to the tories, under 2% I think) resulted in many more conservative MPs. While I'm glad the Lib Dems did well, I've got a feeling this will only threaten Labour from the right.

The fact that the Lib dems secured nearly a quater of the national vote, but won under a tenth of the seats in the commons shows how badly we need proportional representation.

George Galloway is very clearly a fuckhead. I cannot beleive he beat Oona King. Did anyone see Paxman rip him apart very early this morning?

Yeah George Galloway has a few dillusions of Grfanduer although you cant deny it was an achievement to win the seat.
Well done The liberals, they have made strides.I guess it was the best result for me really Labour got in but with a reduced majority which means they must try harder to take into account what the public says and try and (hopefully) the results will move to the left a bit despite what your saying Sam.
Finally bye bye Howard you ran one of the most insulting campaigns Iv ever witnessed.

paxman is a genius

On voting Lib Dem and waking up with a Tory, there weren't actually that many seats where this happened. The Tories won 33 new seats and 5 of them were actually off the Lib Dems so that leaves 28. Of these most actually experienced a larger swing from Labour to Tories than Labour to Lib Dems, so most of the work was actually done by people switching from Labour to Tory. In fact, in many of them, even without any swing to Lib Dems, the Tories would have won. So the number of places where it actually happened are small.

Galloway beating Oona King is shameful. His speech was shameful, too. The Paxman v Galloway was classic. Who else would open an interview with, "Are you proud of having unseated one of only two black female MPs?" The bad thing is she actually cared for the constituency; he's just interested in political point-scroing.

The result isn't bad. Good Lib Dem gain, reduced Labour majority without making the Tories a real threat...

I stayed up till 5:30 am Had to get up at 7, as well, was dying by yesterday afternoon...

Ah, impressive stuff, I only managed 1:30 before remembering I had a practice exam at 9 the next day. That Paxman v. Galloway interview was just superb, Paxman brilliantly highlighted just how much of a selfish fool he is.

Blimey! I went to bed at just after 3, and slept until 7ish, I couldve slept in longer but I just turned the telly on to see what the results were and became gripped again. Didnt get to sleep until 2:30 either last night cos I went to see the Arcade Fire and then couldnt sleep when I got home!

The more I think about the results the better it looks actually. I think Blair will look at the share of the national vote and realise that threat was from the left rather than the right.

I urge everyone to get involved in the below too websites. How can a government win total power on 36% of the vote? How can the lib dems get nearly a quater of the national vote and win less than a tenth of the seats in the commons?

http://www.electoralreform.connectfree.co.uk/

http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/

www.makemyvotecount.org.uk

has a petition you can sign on electoral reform & details of other ways to get involved.

I went to bed at 3am after labour contistuencies hit the 200 mark. Paxman spent most of the night doing what he does best - serving no real purpose save being an stuffy, arrogant twat paid to create pointless conflict. Peter Snow, on the other hand, was superb.

I believe, frankiegts, the swing to Tory from Labour was 3.1% - (according to the Sun left on the bus today)

Pr is all well and good but we have it for assembly elections in Wales and I'm not sure anyone here actually understands it. And you get these top up lists of AM's which seems really strange.Plus if they ever do bring it in they must find a way of linking the MP to their constituency in the way they are now.

Anyhow lets intrude on private grief and speculate on who will take over from Howard?

Let the betting commence this will be the forth tory leader in the last 8 years.

David Davis or Clarke, I reckon. Davis 7-4, Clarke 14-1, and interesting William Hague at 16-1 as well, as an outside.

Hmm I think I got confused when I was reading the first post. What I meant was that the overall swing towards the tories was very tiny indeed (as much of the 3% swing from labour to tory was cancelled out by a swing from tory to lib dem). In 2001 the Tories won 31.7% of the national vote and on Thursday they got 32.3%, thus overall there was only a 0.6% swing to the tories.

I love the way Micheal Howard was trying to protray a 0.6% swing as some kind of wonderful victory

And... hes resigned! The Tories are condemned to another lengthy and hopefully divided leadership campaign! This is very very good news! They deserve everything they get. Probably going to David Davis unless they can find someone more incompotent.

It will be a shame to see the Tory's reduced to squabbling kids again. They've had a short time of stability recently with Howard that has helped them a great deal. I don't want to see the major opposition in such a state - it's not good for the party and it's certainly not good for the country.

I would like to see the leader contest handled quickly and swiftly, without too many headlines about squabbling and deals etc. Get it DONE, and then move on. Howard did exactly the right thing stepping down so quickly - it will allow the maximum amount of time for the new leader to shape the part for the next election.

Incidently, none of this means I support any Tory policy, I just want the opposition party to be a worthwhile one, that challenges this current government, and is a REAL choice in the next election. So many people felt there was only one choice this time, that's not a good state to be in.

Akita

Although I wasn't expecting anything other than a Labour win, the worst thing about this is the fact that David Blunkett has been brought back into the cabinet. Jesus, Blunkett by name, blunkett by nature. The man is an absolute liability. He's even more dangerous than that idiot Prescott (because no one actually takes him seriously). He must be the finest exponent of "knee jerk politics" I've ever seen. Hopefully he'll never make it back to home secretary - where I'm sure if someone close to him had been bitten by a dog, he'd have been calling for a tatical culling of all dogs.

I agree with what you're saying Akita. We do need the three main parties to be in reasonable shape, and contrary to what some people have said on here, I don't see any point in the Conservatives changing their policies drastically just to become electable (each party should just have their policies and have conviction in them). They should leave that to Labour.

George Galloway vs Jeremy Paxman in full!JP: We're joined now from his count in Bethnal Green and Bow by George Galloway. Mr Galloway, are you proud of having got rid of one of the very few black women in Parliament?

GG: What a preposterous question. I know it's very late in the night, but wouldn't you be better starting by congratulating me for one of the most sensational election results in modern history?

JP: Are you proud of having got rid of one of the very few black women in Parliament?

GG: I'm not - Jeremy - move on to your next question.

JP: You're not answering that one?

GG: No because I don't believe that people get elected because of the colour of their skin. I believe people get elected because of their record and because of their policies. So move on to your next question.

JP: Are you proud -

GG: Because I've got a lot of people who want to speak to me.

JP: - You -

GG: If you ask that question again, I'm going, I warn you now.

JP: Don't try and threaten me Mr Galloway, please.

GG: You're the one who's trying to badger me.

JP: I'm not trying to badger you, I'm merely trying to ask if you're proud at having driven out of Parliament one of the very few black women there, a woman you accuse of having on her conscience 100,000 people.

GG: Oh well there's no doubt about that one. There's absolutely no doubt that all those New Labour MPs who voted for Mr Blair and Mr Bush's war have on their hands the blood of 100,000 people in Iraq, many of them British soldiers, many of them American soldiers, most of them Iraqis and that's a more important issue than the colour of her skin.

JP: Absolutely, because you then went on to say "including a lot of women who had blacker faces than her"

GG: Absolutely right, absolutely right. So don't try and tell me I should feel guilty about one of the most sensational election results in modern electoral history.

JP: I put it to you Mr Galloway that Nick Raynsford had you to a T when he said you were a "demagogue".

GG: Sorry?

JP: Nick Raynsford. You know who I mean? Nick Raynsford. Labour MP?

GG: No, I don't know who you mean.

JP: Never heard of him.

GG: I've never heard of Nick Raynsford, no.

JP: What else haven't you heard of?

GG: Well, I've been in Parliament a long time...

JP: He was a Parliamentary colleague of yours until very recently.

GG: Well, most of them just blend one into the other, Jeremy, they're largely a spineless, a supine bunch.

JP: Have you ever heard of Tony Banks?

GG: Yes I have, yes.

JP: Right, Tony Banks was sitting here five minutes ago, and he said that you were behaving inexcusably, that you had deliberately chosen
to go to that part of London and to exploit the latent racial tensions there.

GG: You are actually conducting one of the most - even by your standards - one of the most absurd interviews I have ever participated in. I have just won an election. Can you find it within yourself to
recognise that fact? To recognise the fact that the people of Bethnal Green and Bow chose me this evening. Why are you insulting them?

JP: I'm not insulting them, I'm not insulting you

GG: You are insulting them, they chose me just a few minutes ago. Can't you find it within yourself even to congratulate me on this victory?

JP: Congratulations, Mr Galloway.

GG: Thank you very much indeed. [waves, removes microphone]

You missed the (possibly) best bit - Paxman then, after Galloway removes the microphone, saying something along the lines of "Ah, you're not responding - it's what you always do when you can't deal with someone who disagrees with you".