It’s Over, But No Result

The UK General Election is finally over, and although it only lasted for a month at it’s often felt like years. At times it’s been quite surreal; not only during the campaign but also on the night the results came in. As many of you will already know, we ended up with a Hung Parliament, so now the horse-trading between the parties starts. If two, or more, are not able to agree to form either a coalition or a minority government I feel sure that we shall have to go through this all over again in a few months time.

Meanwhile we sit and watch the TV for news of the outcome, and we all hope that it will only take days rather than weeks. If the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats can do a deal then Gordon Brown will have to leave Number 10. If they can’t then the Liberal Democrats might do a deal with Labour, although the outcome of that would probably be the removal of Brown and Labour having to choose a new leader. The problem with either agreement is that Nick Clegg would also have to get his party’s agreement to any deal, which can take time. The obstacle is that David Cameron really doesn’t want to see a reform of the voting system as he believes in what’s known as first past the post. The LibDems, on the other hand, have always argued for proportional representation, and Labour are offering reform. But, Labour only came up with the idea towards the end of the campaign and it smacks of a last ditch attempt to stay in power.

Regardless of the results, the big news from the night was about Polling Stations, many of which were unable to cope with the amount of people wanting to vote. The law states that they have to close their doors at 10:00 p.m. and in some places that left many people queuing. In other places they simply ran out of ballot papers, so that also disenfranchised people. The excuse from some officials was that there was a higher turnout than they’d expected. In fact the turnout was around 65%. There will be an inquiry into what happened, but many of us are disgusted by it, especially considering that we send observers from our Electoral Commission to monitor elections in Third World Countries.

The election began with the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud and it finished with another cloud closing some airports on the last day of the campaign. I find that rather apt. The ash cloud caused much confusion across the UK, and other places, and the result of the voting is also now causing confusion. But hopefully we can work it out. The people wanted a Hung Parliament, and that’s what we got. The main reason many of us wanted it was to make the parties work together for the good of the country and not the good of themselves.

How it all turns out …… we can only wait and see.