The election result secured a majority government in the UK and it left behind a bloodbath for the remaining political parties. All but Cameron are out of the game, failing to capture any marginal gains.
Prior to the campaign to win your vote we were told much about what would happen to the if you didn’t vote and who close the polls were. Everyone got it wrong – so what can the discerning gent take from the 2015 campaign and what will this mean for the UK?
Take poll results with caution
Until late on voting night every poll from the previous months and weeks had shown Labour and the Conservatives both leading, with not much between them. However, once the BBC’s voting coverage began, things completely switched with the exit poll putting team Cameron 77 seats ahead and just short of a majority.
Paddy Ashdown vowed to “eat his hat” if it turned out to be accurate, and YouGov’s Peter Kelner reiterated that nothing they had seen in their data suggested such a swing. Then, as the results came in, it became apparent that the results were, if anything, even worse for Labour.
The results saw off Clegg, Miliband and Farrage. Its difficult to see how the opionon polls got it so wrong but it safe to say – they aren’t always right.
Labour – version 2.0
Labour has been facing a identity problem since the advent of Thatcherism: essentially, that the people it was set up to represent are a dwindling group and many of the people who may fall into that group socio-economically no longer self-identify as such.
Tony Blair repositioned the party as a center-left movement and chalked up astonishing electoral success as a result, despite now being seen as one of the most loathed individuals in political. Miliband gambled that the country was ready to move its political center to the left but this hope has proven to be wrong. Time to select a leader with a clear vision for what Labour wants to be and how it can get there: for the people.
Twitter and politics
Part of the shock among Labour voters, who are generally younger, city dwelling, digitally-engaged types, was that it seemed like their party had real momentum behind them. Why – because social media “is a vast, self-reinforcing echo chamber where people tend to surround themselves with people who think and feel like they do”. This result is a clear reminder that social media is not the real world, while it plays a part, it cant (yet) change the political landscape on its own.
The new political landscape
This election rest was a professional K-O for an entire raft of people who have dominated British politics for years! Ed Balls, Douglas Alexander, George Galloway, Danny Alexander, Charles Kennedy, Jim Murphy and Vince Cable all lost their seats. The leaders of three of the five biggest parties in the UK have resigned, taking the full impact of the poor results achieved. The Liberal Democrats in particular have been eviscerated as a political force. Being part of a collation has had an irreparable impact, which will take time and effort to repair. It is yet to be seen where the new personalities in politics emerge from but one thing is for sure – there is plenty of space for them to shine.