For the first time, the Green Party won a seat in the UK Parliament. Caroline Lucas won in the constituency of Brighton Pavilion in southern England.
Here are the results:
Caroline Lucas, Green: 31.3%
Nancy Platts, Labour: 28.9%
Charlotte Vere, Conservative: 23.7%
Bernadette Millam, Liberal Democrat: 13.8%
Nigel Carter, UK Independence Party: 1.8%
Ian Fyvie Socialist Labour Party: 0.3%
Soraya Karam, Citizens for Undead Rights and Equality: 0.1%
Leo Atreides, Independent: 0.05%
It will be interesting to see how close Nigel Farage gets to victory in Buckingham.
Salma Yaqoob failed to get a seat in Birmingham.
But to be honest, with how its gone tonight, we might have another election as early as late this year, the Greens might be pressured finances wise to secure their seat if an early election were to happen.
I actually think Farage’s plane crash could help him.
#3: “I actually think Farage’s plane crash could help him.”
You know what, I was thinking about it all day how it was unfair promotion of a particular candidate :p It dominated BBC news right up until Sunderland started reporting results at Quarter to 11.
How many of the 650 party hacks in the next U.K. House of Commons will get a MINORITY of the votes in the gerrymander districts ???
Will the Lib Dems DEMAND P.R. at ALL COSTS — to END the EVIL rule of the EVIL party hacks for about 700 plus years ???
Stay tuned.
P.R. and A.V.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/
*Swing* math for party hacks and media MORONS.
Interestingly quite a lot of MP’s re standing got increased majorities, and a lot of them got over the 50% mark in their respected constituencies.
One has to wonder how many votes Caroline Lucas received for being blessed with such a mellifluous name. At any rate, it’s a jolly good win!
Its quite clear with the full results that the Green Party pushed everything into that one constituency. In 36 constituencies outside of England (that’s Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales) they lost their deposits in all but one. Its similar dismal results in the rest of England where the bulk of their 300 candidates are. A lot of money down the drain in £500 deposits considering they only bothered in that one.
Curious that all 4 candidates with substantial support (95+%)were women. It might be interesting to learn how many and which Districts (Regions) where 2 or more of the 3 major parties candidates were women this election.
I heard they put all their money and hopes on three districts. I don’t know how they did in the other two. Just wondering, how much of a vote do they have to get to receive their deposits back.
Everyone, regardless of whether they are under a party name or as an Independent, need 5% of the total vote in that constituency. Of the 300+ candidates, I’d probably estimate that the Green Party lost more than 250 of them, probably closer to 290. 250*£500 = £125,000 or 183,537.5 US$ according to google right now.
Other parties, such as UKIP try to stand in virtually every seat, and in 2005 they probably only saved about 5 of their deposits, and they lost an even higher figure than that of the above. Their near 1,000,000 votes might look high, but when you divide it by how many candidates they had (I think it was 550) and you get an average vote of roughly 1,820 votes per constituency, which is usually around the 1-3% mark. I wouldn’t be surprised if UKIP lost £200-250 thousand this time round. If they focused on individual seats, they would have probably had the interest to consider them as serious candidates. BNP is currently doing the same thing, its the lure of looking like a Major party by standing in as many places as possible, and by the Greens effort in this election it just proves its a waste of time standing if the ground work isn’t there (its free to stand in local elections here).
They really pushed and pushed and pushed for that Brighton Pavilion Seat and its well deserved, its the first time that they campaigned 110% for an actual political goal. If they started cutting down their candidates and focusing more, they could see more MP’s in future, with no change to the system.
BTW, Nigel Farage came in a very distant third in his race. So much for the sympathy vote!
It is interesting that the name of Leo Atreides is so much like the name of Leto Atreides (one of the most important characters in the “Dune” novels).
Speaking of names, it seems to me that the “bloom is still on the rose” with the center-left’s victory in the British elections.
Mikebloke, I just had a look at the Green Party UK website where they have a listing of all of their candidates and percentages and found only 8 candidates got over the 5 percent they needed to get back their deposits.