The UK General Election 2015

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Daily Mirror seems quite bereft.

Looks like Wallace has fucked it. Guess he'll have to retire to a quiet life of bestial relations with Gromit.

Labour should put up a Muslim leader next time. No danger of bacon-related gaffes.

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So has this made a Brexit less or more likely?
I'm guessing that UKIP needed more of a platform in terms of their actual representation for that to be a real possibility? Or is there enough of a movement already that only UKIP seriously campaigning for it in the lead-up to the referendum would be enough?

Largo's Shark wrote:

To state the obvious, the SNP gains in Scotland look devastating for the reds.

Doesn't it also all but guarantee Scottish independence in the not so distant future?

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Erica Ambler wrote:

Final pissing-in-the-wind observations:

Labour leadership campaign is underway, but with no obvious winners.

The Guardian has called the British electorate evil.

UKIP got as many votes as the SNP, but 50 less seats.

I've never seen anyone as relieved to lose as Nigel Farage.

The EU will now have to face Cameron after all.

From what I have read, the majority of London-based businesses abhor the thought of a Brexit.
So how does Cameron juggle his own party's wishes (or at the very least the strong-held beliefs of what appear to be at least 50-60 of his MPs) and the behemoths of the British economy?
I don't see any scenario in which he isn't forced to disappoint at least some of his allies.

So I guess what follows now is a staring contest in which both Cameron and Juncker hope the other one blinks first?

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I don't see how Scotland can persist as part of the UK - at least in the long term - after that SNPs result.
As someone who is skeptical about Belgium's own possible separation (I can't see it ever happening), I do know that the country would be more or less done with if the Flemish separatists ever got a similar result to the one SNP just achieved.

Of course there are differences both electorally and in terms of the regions standing towards the larger nation (by which I mean that Flanders is far more integral to Belgium's survival and continued existence than Scotland is to the UK, just in terms of the economics).

Erica Ambler wrote:

Finally, BBC's Europe editor, Katya Adler writes:

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"Governments had already been discussing a possible framework for renegotiating Britain's relationship with the EU behind closed doors. Now that talk will go public.

"Certainly at next month's summit here in Brussels. The countdown starts now. Mr Cameron has promised a referendum in 2017... and Brussels is hardly known for speedy decision-making. Expect quite some flexibility: few countries want to see the UK's burgeoning economy leave the fold.

"But there will be limits, possibly over people's freedom to live and work anywhere in the EU. European federalists will be worrying that Britain's desire for 'less Brussels' will now be echoed elsewhere, leading to an unravelling of the EU as they know it, or dream it could and should be."

Not sure if any other country bar Greece has a high enough level of Euro-skepticism that might make a departure from the EU feasible.

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While I tend to agree it was probably a vote led by fears of the alternative (either Labour and/or SNP), it is interesting that the council elections have reflected a similar pattern (where the SNP is surely not a factor).

All is all a surprising election where I feel we have got the best of a bad bunch rather than an outright win.

Sorry to see the Lib Dems get so trounced, they did what was needed of them (and as a party that favours AV has to be routinely accepted) and probably had a greater effect on British Policy than at any time in the last 50 years (the Lib-Lab pact was hardly competition).

I'd love to see some serious voting reform there are systems that can preserve a degree of 'first past the post' election for a local representative and a top up of PR seats...moving forward the last government was at least represented of more than 60% of the voters wishes (to some degree) whereas here we are back to the fact that rule comes from a party 63% of the country didn't vote for.

I quite enjoyed the coverage though wheeling out fossils like Paddy Ashdown, Norman Tebbit and Douglas Hurd is surely as inappropriate as Hurds comment about Scot's MP's.

Never heard of a party leader tendering their resignation and the party's head honchos rejecting it before, but it's happened to Farage.

Realistically who else is there but Farage?

Steven Woolfe and Suzanne Evans are both excellent.

It seems I was right:

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/nigel-farage-why-i-decided-i-had-to-stay-on-as-ukip-leader/ar-BBjCl50?ocid=mailsignoutmd

I wasn't all that surprised by the Tory win, I've been saying for some time we should never underestimate the Tories and their potential to turn the game. Lots of people I know voted for them to prevent a UKIP candidate. The only thing that really amazed me was Farage, Clegg and Miliband all taking the exit door, I didn't see that coming. Though it's somehow less surprising Farage's door may turn out to be revolving after all. Or not, we'll see.

Now for a fast EU referendum, 2017 was indeed much too long in the future. As is even 2016 seems distant now. Why ever don't they try to set it for December of this year? Is it really so complicated to arrange a simple question for the electorate that it takes more than six months to print the ballot? To me all the essential details seem already spread out by both sides, (nice levelheaded summary here: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/14/brexit-what-would-happen-if-britain-left-eu-european-union-referendum-uk ) so why not cut all the pointless gerrymandering by the usual biased suspects and let the people decide right now? Whatever it will turn out to be, we'll have to live with the consequences anyway, might as well get used to it right now.

The referendum was always dependent on new proposals for the new treaty - theoretically the decision has to be about opting in to what the EU-UK agreement will be into the future, rather than a verdict on what it 'has been'/'is now' (whether people will give it such credence is of course debatable, most have probably already made up their minds).

In any event I imagine the 2017 date will bring with it consequences that can be deferred to the next government....both an opt-out for the current one and perhaps an opportunity to put a manifesto to the people for the next.