General Election

[emyandpotato]

Genuinely feeling panicked today, particularly about the NHS. If it goes I don't know how we'll afford health insurance for a family of four. And extremely worried about people who need more continuous help, like those with long term disabilities or mental illnesses. Our area is really poor with high unemployment so I'm worried a lot of people will suffer with further cuts to welfare.

Our MP is Labour, luckily, and by a landslide too. UKIP came in second which was expected but worrying. I hate to think that so many people around here support their policies.

 

[emyandpotato]

Do we all think the system needs reforming? Some people's votes are worth more than others at the moment. 56 seats for SNP with 1.5m votes but 1 seat for greens with 1m votes. That's not reflective of voters then and shows that it could be possible to have more seats but less votes and win the election. That seems crazy to me.

Yes, absolutely!

 

[sequeena]

Absolutely devastated.

 

[Rhio92]

Terrified. Future is looking bleak for this country :/

 

[lau86]

I'm soooo disappointed and upset and irrationally angry. I really thought it was going to be different. So much so I've been on the verge of tears all day worrying. Which is not like me.

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

I'm not surprised Tories won. I'm not estatic though x

 

[babyjan]

Oh for sure there are people voting for every party that haven't read policies. I just didn't like that much of the media was about how Ed looked and acted, we all should care more about the politics and less about appearances. You know?
.

I agree, it was horrible the way the media treated him

 

[emyandpotato]

Oh for sure there are people voting for every party that haven't read policies. I just didn't like that much of the media was about how Ed looked and acted, we all should care more about the politics and less about appearances. You know?
.

I agree, it was horrible the way the media treated him

Do you remember the awful campaign last election that was basically just mocking Gordon Brown's looks? It's totally disgraceful IMO. Whether you like the politician or not has nothing to do with how good looking they are, and anyone who thinks the best way to popularity is to mock someone on their appearance is not someone I want running the country.

 

[Quartz]

Im not sure how I feel. On the one hand I think its good that its a majority government for stability and I am thrilled that the did not have to align with UKIP.

Electoral reform I dont think will happen as they have never found a better working solution.

I dont think you can compare Green and UKIP votes with SNP either - only a small proportion of those who could vote could vote for them and they did get 50% in that area. I think both Scotland and England have spoken and they are clearly saying very different things (I would be interested to see how many people decided to vote Tory just to prevent a Labour/SNP coalition). Out of 650 seats if you take away those given to the top two parties and those that went to the national parties there are only 29 MPS left or 4.5% of seats were remaining.

As for me personally its difficult. In my heart I am a socialist but live in an area that makes me a classic middle england voter that the government is unlikely to want to upset to much (i.e. represent in theory your classic conservative voter!)

 

[Rhi_Rhi1]

Conservative voters must either be very quiet or I just don't know any ?! haha


Not happy with the outcome at all. Ughh.

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

David Cameron rap is hilarious.

 

[icklemonster]

I feel very mixed about all the results.

On a personal level my life has improved drastically since the last general election and I do attribute a lot of that to both the Tories and Lib Dems. Most people I know are significantly better off now than 5 years ago too. I see things in the paper about people hitting food banks, but if I'm entirely honest that is completely alien to me and those around me - ranging from single working parents, young families, young couples, my Grandparents etc. (Before I go on I'd just like to say I don't vote Tory, pure lib dem, but this is my honest appraisal of what I see around me and why I believe the Tories won).

I work in recruitment and compared to where we were 5 years ago the world of recruitment has improved 100 fold. I'm no longer constantly registering people following mass redundancies, instead I'm struggling to find good people to fill all the jobs I have on. Clearly this is a great result for the working masses.

On the same note I am terrified for the recruitment world of what an EU referendum will mean, especially as I live in an area that relies on ties to the EU.

I am horrified that UKIP got such a high portion of the vote, and for the first time am uttering the words, thank God we don't have proportional representation (even though I realise this is unfair for the Greens etc).

I feel very sorry for the Lib Dems, as I believe they did more than people realise to implement change, a lot of which the Tories took credit for! They knew they were signing a death warrant going into the coalition and did it for the good of the country. I'm clearly pregnant as I felt close to tears by Nick Clegg's resignation speech

Re the NHS. I don't believe during the next Governmentthe UK is going to turn us into a US-style healthcare system, like some are making out on my facebook. The British people hold the NHS very dear, and the Tories won by a tiny minority, they're not going to go all outlandish. I think they will proceed with more caution than people are expecting (I really hope so anyway!).

Anyway just a few of my cents.....I have a million more things to say about it, but will save that for the expected debate with DH over dinner about what it all means!

 

[Quartz]

I feel very mixed about all the results.

On a personal level my life has improved drastically since the last general election and I do attribute a lot of that to both the Tories and Lib Dems. Most people I know are significantly better off now than 5 years ago too. I see things in the paper about people hitting food banks, but if I'm entirely honest that is completely alien to me and those around me - ranging from single working parents, young families, young couples, my Grandparents etc. (Before I go on I'd just like to say I don't vote Tory, pure lib dem, but this is my honest appraisal of what I see around me and why I believe the Tories won).

I work in recruitment and compared to where we were 5 years ago the world of recruitment has improved 100 fold. I'm no longer constantly registering people following mass redundancies, instead I'm struggling to find good people to fill all the jobs I have on. Clearly this is a great result for the working masses.

On the same note I am terrified for the recruitment world of what an EU referendum will mean, especially as I live in an area that relies on ties to the EU.

I am horrified that UKIP got such a high portion of the vote, and for the first time am uttering the words, thank God we don't have proportional representation (even though I realise this is unfair for the Greens etc).

I feel very sorry for the Lib Dems, as I believe they did more than people realise to implement change, a lot of which the Tories took credit for! They knew they were signing a death warrant going into the coalition and did it for the good of the country. I'm clearly pregnant as I felt close to tears by Nick Clegg's resignation speech

Re the NHS. I don't believe during the next Government in the UK are going to turn us into a US-style healthcare system, like some are making out on my facebook. The British people hold the NHS very dear, and the Tories won by a tiny minority, they're not going to go all outlandish. I think they will proceed with more caution than people are expecting (I really hope so anyway!).

Anyway just a few of my cents.....I have a million more things to say about it, but will save that for the expected debate with DH over dinner about what it all means!

You put far more eloquently what I was trying to say. And I suspect we live in similar areas (London/Surrey Borders)

 

[icklemonster]

I live just outside Cambridge in a commuter village, so yes probably similar in terms of jobs/wealth/house prices etc....

 

[lindseymw]

I think with the Conservatives, it all depends on where you live as to how their policies affect you.

I'm from the North East, Teesside. The amount of public services that have been closed/reduced is staggering all down to cuts made to the Council (whilst some Southern Councils got an increase in their budget.)

The most scariest thing for me is the amount of misinformation people are spouting. Someone on facebook has blamed uk immigration for the global econonmic crash....

 

[Rhi_Rhi1]

My town has ended up Con, shocking as we are a small steel town "built" by Scottish(and irish) migrants! A huge amount of people here work in factories. We lost out because all the surrounding estates/villages went Tory; We drove through a few a week ago, and entire villages were sporting the blue signs not to mention the gated estates (ya know the ones where u can't even see the house from the road)

Also alot of people voted UKIP. Which was bound to happen tbh, small town made up of low skilled workers and an abundance of factories all supplied work by agencies :/ it is a magnet for immigrants and we do have a lot, not that it bothers me any but you always hear everyone harping on about it.

Just a shame that the wasted UKIP votes helped get the conservatives in... I did keep trying to explain the voting system to people i know but they weren't interested. Today they are eating their words.

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

My town has ended up Con, shocking as we are a small steel town "built" by Scottish(and irish) migrants! A huge amount of people here work in factories. We lost out because all the surrounding estates/villages went Tory; We drove through a few a week ago, and entire villages were sporting the blue signs not to mention the gated estates (ya know the ones where u can't even see the house from the road)

Also alot of people voted UKIP. Which was bound to happen tbh, small town made up of low skilled workers and an abundance of factories all supplied work by agencies :/ it is a magnet for immigrants and we do have a lot, not that it bothers me any but you always hear everyone harping on about it.

Just a shame that the wasted UKIP votes helped get the conservatives in... I did keep trying to explain the voting system to people i know but they weren't interested. Today they are eating their words.

Hope it works out. Yep the voting sadly means they got in by far

 

[icklemonster]

My town has ended up Con, shocking as we are a small steel town "built" by Scottish(and irish) migrants! A huge amount of people here work in factories. We lost out because all the surrounding estates/villages went Tory; We drove through a few a week ago, and entire villages were sporting the blue signs not to mention the gated estates (ya know the ones where u can't even see the house from the road)

Also alot of people voted UKIP. Which was bound to happen tbh, small town made up of low skilled workers and an abundance of factories all supplied work by agencies :/ it is a magnet for immigrants and we do have a lot, not that it bothers me any but you always hear everyone harping on about it.

Just a shame that the wasted UKIP votes helped get the conservatives in... I did keep trying to explain the voting system to people i know but they weren't interested. Today they are eating their words.

Sounds like when I drove through Ely last week - just blue banners everywhere! My village gets pulled into the Ely constituency, due to the strange way the political map works, and I knew the lib dems didn't stand a chance - not that that would stop me voting for the policies in which I believe! Conservatives won by a 50% majority round here.

In fact East Anglia is just a sea of blue with a couple of little red / yellow fishies and a nasty little purple shark xx

 

[loeylo]

My parents are mega worried about SNP, they have always been Tory voters (or some of the smaller parties) but had to vote labour as they now live in a former industrial town which is traditionally one of Labours safest seats, so they had to tactically vote Labour to try and keep the SNP out. Didn't work!

 

[sue_88]

Oh for sure there are people voting for every party that haven't read policies. I just didn't like that much of the media was about how Ed looked and acted, we all should care more about the politics and less about appearances. You know?

Sue, my children and I were talking about that yesterday as my nine year old asked if you have to vote. I explained that we don't have to but there are places like Australia. But went in to explain that just because we don't have to doesn't mean we shouldn't how people fought for our right, they know about the suffragettes and I told them how there are still places around the world where people would do anything to be able to vote in peace.

Do we all think the system needs reforming? Some people's votes are worth more than others at the moment. 56 seats for SNP with 1.5m votes but 1 seat for greens with 1m votes. That's not reflective of voters then and shows that it could be possible to have more seats but less votes and win the election. That seems crazy to me.

There was chance for change within the last government. The UK people rejected it. (Alternative Vote referendum, 2011)

It will not change. More votes = constituency MP winner. More MPs = government.