Tories steal unexpected election victory
David Cameron returns to No. 10
(CNS): After months of speculation that the UK government would be horse trading over another coalition today, Prime Minister David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative Party, will remain at No 10 Downing Street after his party scraped through the UK election to a full but slender majority in the parliament of 331 seats. The Tory’s narrow and surprising win came in the face of the Labour Party’s annihilation in Scotland, where they lost virtually all of their seats to the Scottish Nationalist Party, which upped its count in Westminster from six to 56 seats.
After the Labour leader Ed Miliband’s warnings to the British overseas territories about wanting to see transparent and public beneficial ownership registers in their with financial services centres, Cayman Islands Premier Alden McLaughlin said it was “not without relief” that his government had heard of Cameron’s victory.
“I congratulate Mr Cameron on a well-fought battle and the people of the United Kingdom who determined, after listening to all of the rhetoric and analysis, to return the Conservatives,” McLaughlin state in a release Friday.
“We believe that a win by the Labour Party would have had dire consequences for the Cayman Islands and other Overseas Territories, especially in the area of beneficial ownership of companies based in their jurisdictions. We have vehemently opposed forced beneficial ownership, which Labour proposed, because it could damage our very important financial services industry,” he added.
Miliband had told BOTs they would have six months to create public registers or they would be added to a tax haven blacklist.
The current overseas territories minister, James Duddridge, retained his Rochford and Southend East for the Tories but it remains to be seen whether he will stay in his job or move up the political career ladder, as Cameron will now be forming a new Cabinet.
Although Labour, like the Conservatives, managed to win some seats from the implosion of the Liberal Democrats across the rest of the UK, it was not enough to make up for their historic destruction north of the English border, where the SNP overturned massive majorities and safe seats held by Labour for decades.
The junior partner in the coalition government, the Liberal Democrats, was completely humiliated losing most of their seats and returning just eight MPs. Nick Clegg has announced his decision to quit the party leadership, and the opposition leader, Ed Miliband, is also expected to resign from the Labour Party’s top job later today.
With the exception of the Scottish Nationalists, the smaller parties failed to make much headway in the ‘first past the post’ system. The anticipated rise of the anti-foreign party UKIP never materialize and the party retained its one seat as Nigel Farage failed to win his targeted seat of Thanet South, losing to the Conservatives. He is also expected to quit as leader.
The Green Party retained its one seat in Brighton with an increased share of the vote, and although still a very small party, over a million people in the UK voted for Green candidates.
According to early statistics, voter turnout was around 66%, a marginal increase on the last elections.
Category: UK, World News
Awesome how democracy is great for the winners but is somehow ridiculed and mocked by same said winners in relation to those that hold an opposing view.
There is no wonder why some nationals have acquired their reputations.
Just goes to show that the hoopla is not really about democracy at all – instead it is about power, bullying and arrogance … as it has always been.
WTF, the most qualified democrat of all time! Attila the Hun had nothing on you!
That’s what opposition is, it’s not a beauty contest, especially when some views are naive or just plain ridiculous. It’s not democracy that is being mocked, it’s the policies of a side that couldn’t put a convincing manifesto to the electorate and got well and truly punished for it.
Whatever the case, a true democracy respects the rights of others to hold an opposing view and vote accordingly. I fail to understand what warrants the insults and snide remarks.
Are the victors upset that over 60% of the voting electorate wanted otherwise?
When a political party fails to protect its people from forces that brought down its economy, purged it’s the nations pensions fund, sold off large quantities of its gold reserves, encouraged unrestrained immigration and then refused to allow the people a vote on the EU because ‘we couldn’t be trusted’, it deserves ridicule.
Likewise, when an other party who may command 50% of the vote in Scotland, but only 4.7% nationally wants to break up our nation state, impose left wing policies on the majority of the British people and destroy our nuclear deterrence, then they shouldn’t expect to be welcomed with open arms by the vast majority.
Your duplicity is breathtaking as It was you who highlighted the unwelcome side of Scottish nationalist politics and the bully boy tactics deployed, continued to make barbed comments in relation to the UK system and its people and followed up with short asides based on nothing but narrow viewed online news clips. Not once did you enter into a debate or offer a constructive alternative view. But thats typical of your pernicious style.
Others having opposing views is not the issue, in fact it’s welcomed in an open and democratic debate. That is unless they are made in ignorance from a long distance, and especially if they contain vitriolic assertions in regard to the UK state or its people.
And once again you fail to understand the vote share of this election. The winning vote share may well be one third, but that does not mean that the remaining two thirds agreed with each other and are considered a solid opposition. With so many differing parties, (from far right to far left) and with so many differing policies and agendas it is ridiculous to believe that they are in any way collectively representative.
So just to confirm, it’s not the opposing views of those who actually took part in the democratic process that attract ridicule, it’s the naivety and deceitfulness of the opposition political establishment that resulted in a strong rebuke. As for those who just make snide comments from afar and have no place in the recent democratic process, (such as yourself) I say to you, if you don’t want your fingers burnt, keep out of the fire.
Ok.
Care to share your take on why the Conservatives lost to Labour upon the arrival of Tony Blair and remained on the back-burner throughout and beyond his reign?
I trust your perspective in this respect will be as colourful and comprehensive as above.
Simply because Tony Blair offered a centre left government that appealed to the aspirational working and middle classes. There was also a sense within the country that the Tories had become too used to power and the country needed a change. Blair was a charismatic leader who appealed to a generation who had known nothing but a Conservative government.
But, the shine soon went off Blair after he and Bush cooked up the Invasion of Iraq in 2003, (during his 2nd term). He remained in power largely because of Labours dependence on Scottish votes and as we’ve witnessed recently, without them Labour is a spent force in the remainder of the country. (With both the Tories, and more significantly UKIP, raising their share of the vote, and the Lib Dems collapsing theirs, Labour has a massive up hill struggle to regain any real influence. This will be eroded further when new boundary changes are implemented in this parliament).
Brown was another matter. He was definitely not charismatic, he was tainted by the Blair years and took over as leader without a leadership contest after possibly the longest sulk in British political history. His inept handling of the economy was starting to unravel and his complicity in the economic black hole that had appeared was damning.
Milliband was another leader lacking in charisma and took Labour back to the bad old days of left wing ideology by dumping the New Labour model. He failed to listen to the British people or apologise for Labours mishandling of the financial crisis of 2008. He failed to acknowledge that Labour had allowed the banking industry to run riot, taking the proceeds for their grandiose spending plans, not saving enough for a rainy day and failing to regulate responsibly. He then made moves to prop up a minority Labour government with the very people who wanted the break up of the UK, the SNP.
Simply put, the British people didn’t trust him or a left wing Labour Party.
Is that colourful enough for you? I’ve tried to keep it simple for you, but should you wish to challenge any of the points with evidence to the contrary, (side swipes and grandstanding comment aside) then I would be happy to accommodate your thoughts.
Standing there and making derisory statements isn’t the same as challenging an argument with incontrovertible evidence. Your whole modus operandi relies on side swipes and grandstanding comment, not once do you attempt to tackle those who disagree with your poisonous commentary with a reasoned and balanced counter argument.
But it’s what we come to expect from whining nationalists.
Umm … wasn’t talking about me buddy.
Feel free to try again though.
That’ll make a change then.
It’ll also make you a doofus.
How very grown up of you.
Oh dear 08.16, did you stop taking your pills
Anonymous
I consider myself a progressive (not the PPM progressives) but a moderate liberal and generally agree with the policies of UK Labour and US Democrats (concerns for the environment, the working class and human rights for all, among other progressive topics) but Ed was too Liberal for me and I agree with Boris that he would push the UK back into the 70s.
Two other observations:1. The so-called leader of the opposition with just two seats allegedly went to Westminster where it was further alleged that he purchased books on UK Parliamentary systems on CIG credit cards, which I assume are not in his home office but at the LA library for all to access.
Unfortunately, he missed the part that records the history of UK party systems that when your party loses, especially in the manner that they lost the last election that you resign as party chair and stop trying to cling on to power.
We could maybe say that Mr Tibbetts did this when his PPPM government lost the last election; 2. Alden you need to be a little more diplomatic and circumspect in your public statements of the labour party because they might just find a better leader that will return them to power next election and your words come back not to haunt you but we the people of these islands. This is not the first time I have heard him expressed such unguarded, undiplomatic comments about another country’s election. You can do better…that I would expect from McKeeva!
I congratulate the British people on demonstrating how elections are fought and won without a shot fired or harm to anyone, unfortunately, my Caribbean bothers and sisters are still stuck in a mentality of power by any means necessary.
Well its right that the rich man gets richer and to hell with the working poor. I am reaching for my bottle of bubbly to celebrate as I am Alright Jack!
I agree. I despise the poor. Useless entitled pieces of garbage, sucking on everyone else for generations and even worse them them, the buzzard vampire politicians praying on their stupidity and laziness to buy votes at the cost of everyone else in the community. The poor will always be poor no matter how much you raise taxes and distribute back to their useless families. Why? because poverty is *mentality* perpetrated by useless families, continually teaching to hate and find ways to tear down those who makes something of themselves. So yea, despite your obvious sarcasm, that’s right, screw the poor!
One thing for sure, haggis will now be on the menu in the House of Commons restaurant.
what a Bolla for Ed Milliband, he was planning on shutting Cayman down. Looks like Mr. Cameron not only shut him down but locked him out.
What politicians say during an election campaign and what they actually do when in office is often very different. Take the Tories for instance who have said the NHS is safe in their hands when it actually is not. Get ready for the proof being in the £12 billion cuts coming to the NHS and social welfare. Oh and be aware that more people are on welfare in UK who are actually in Work and those receiving welfare because of unemployment. Sit sweetly in your tax haven Cayman where the rich UK residents put their money to avoid tax, whilst we, the poor of Britain pay.
Ah the politics of envy that petty minded socialists do so well. I miss you guys, sitting in front of your tv’s watching endless episodes of Citizen Smith and dreaming of the day that you paragons of British virtue will sort out the rest of us greedy, aspirational models of success.
The problem with that is the British people, and especially the Scots, have dumped you because you are delusional and everyone now knows it.
Your vision to ‘save’ the NHS was a joke as we now understand that to spend, spend, spend is just false economy and will eventually result in catastrophic damage in the future. It didn’t work before and it won’t work again.
The arrogance of your case identifies the misguided belief that we all got it wrong, when in fact we got it spot on.
The British are fed up with unsustainable welfare payments, especially to people who have never paid into the system or refuse to educate themselves to a level where they are employable in today’s workplace. We are fed up with the Labour policy of allowing unrestrained access to our country and the failure to put proper immigration controls in place early enough.
We are sick and tired of being told by politicians that we cannot be trusted to vote on the EU and its pernicious interference in our laws and way of life. And most of all we are furious that Labour failed to regulate the banks, got off on the revenue, spent all the money, then watched as the financial system collapsed around our heads.
It is no surprise that business has breathed a sigh of relief, it is no coincidence that shares have risen and the pound regained some strength. It is no coincidence that the economy is on the rise and more people are finding employment.
No my friend, the politics of envy have no place in the UK anymore. Your lies have been exposed, your politicians have been shown the door and the British people will not be ruled by a minority, socialist government from Scotland.
Finally, let’s deal with the green eyed monster in the room shall we. You know, those of us who apparently ‘sit sweetly’ in our tax haven so that we don’t contribute to the UK tax revenues. Well newsflash idiot, we do pay tax. Most expat workers are not rich, or anywhere near it. We are just motivated to find work where ever it maybe and not sit on our lazy butts waiting for the state to do it for us. Most pay taxes to the HMRC and most have interests in the UK that generate further revenue.
And most of all, there is no such thing as tax free, we all pay local duty on everything we buy. The cost of living here far out strips the UK and doesn’t allow most people to ‘sit sweetly’ on anything but sand on the beach.
Your narrow minded view of living in a tax haven is typical of the uneducated moron who believes that people should be restrained in their ambitions and ability to earn an income. Your envy is there for all to see, and that’s why you don’t stand a hope in hell of making a return anytime soon.
Long live aspiration.
So you believe that it was ok for the bankers to get off scott free whilst the working people of Britain pay the price? Nice.
Oh, shame, you can’t understand English either. I clearly state that banks were unregulated by a Labour government, who got off on the revenue, spent all the money and watched as the financial system collapsed. Not really difficult to see that I’m not a fan of the bankers or the idiots that allowed them to destroy the UK economy. It was your friends in the Labour Party that allowed bankers to over lend, spend the proceeds without putting some away for a rainy day and sink the entire economy into recession, not the Tories. It was the greed of a Labour Party high on free money that got us all in trouble when the financial crisis hit in 2008. And Browns policies of stripping pension funds and selling off our gold reserves didn’t help either.
The real workers of Britain didn’t forget and punished them accordingly.
And in any case, the bankers have been subjected to huge financial penalties and future levy’s, maybe not enough, but we still need them to boost our economy, rightly or wrongly.
As for ‘working people’, well that is just socialist nonsense as anyone that is in employment, from cleaners to bankers, is a working person.
What you mean by that banal phraseology is people who have failed to aspire to better things, didn’t get a better education or are just plain stupid. Your envious notations just highlight those who are fortunate, educated and successful, mainly due to hard work and aspiration. Is that a bad thing in your envious little world, obviously it is?
We all pay the price for those who fail to achieve to a moderate level, they drain our welfare system and strain our NHS because they don’t have the intelligence or gumption to provide for themselves. The welfare state was founded to help those who fell on hard times, not to cosset those who can’t be bothered. As a working person, have you tried to claim benefits if your partner is in employment? The truth is that you will be denied, even though you may have paid in all of your adult life. Is that fair when others just sit on their expansive backsides, breed uncontrollably and claim 1000’s in support from the rest of us?
No my friend, the ‘workers’ and ‘everyone else’ policy has failed, we are all workers, regardless of income. The top 1% pay the majority tax in the UK, that’s not my figure, that’s an HMRC fact. If we wave goodbye to that 1%, whose going to pick up the slack, you and your socialist or liberal worker friends, I don’t think so.
The ‘working’ people of Britain have already spoken, whether you see it or not. They have ditched Labour and its naive plans and gone with a party that provides security for the economy, stability in the workplace and assurance that business can grow without envious legislation.
‘Working’ people, all 11,334,520 of them voted for the status quo and not a socialist regime of 9,347,362 Labour supporters, backed up by 1.45 million Nationalist Scots, (that’s still a minority vote share and a loosing figure by the way).
It’s called democracy, live with it, or go live in Cuba, China or Zimbabwe and see how socialism really works for you.
What exactly did the bankers do?
Their job, it was the Labour government who failed to regulate them appropriately.
Steal?
I share your confusion.
CNS, why use the word ‘steal’ to refer to a clear majority mandate? Labour lost many seats to Tory candidates, seats they had to win to have a chance of success, they failed and they are now 98 seats behind the Conservatives. That’s not a steal, it’s a rout!
And as for your disgusting description of UKIP as anti foreigner, well, that beats your ridiculous prediction of a minority hung parliament. UKIP are not anti foreigner, they are anti Brussels and the unelected bureaucrats that interfere in almost every aspect of sovereign authority. They are not anti immigration, just anti uncontrolled EU immigration, it is they who want to adopt the Australian points system, an accepted and reasonable answer to mass immigration.
In regard to your small party headway comment, how do you explain 4m UKIP voters and a 9.5% point rise in the share of the vote, taking them to the third largest vote share in the entire UK? After all, the SNP account for only 4% of the vote share nationally, that’s not a huge number in anyone’s book.
If you are intent on making political points on this site, then at least get your facts straight before embarrassing yourselves with inaccuracies and untruths.
Great news for Cayman, as labour wanted to black list us and bring the Funds business to London.
Unexpected? Only to anyone delusional enough to think that even die-hard Labour voters wanted Miliband as MP or that the traditional Lib-Dem voters would support Clegg after he sold out to the Tories.
What is surprising is the apparent shift from Labour to UKIP in some areas. Where I originally come from in England UKIP moved up from fourth place in the poll to second, with most of that swing coming off the labour total.
Should read ‘Miliband as PM’ – too much celebrating after the victory!
Cayman has dodge yet another proverbial bullet from those who have been led to believe they are paying their taxes to support us. On the contrary we are paying huge amounts of money in donations for the conservative victories we they see. It is a very Interesting game though. Yet their is a wider and less obvious lesson about those who conspire to influence and tinkering with fair election processes and people rights to self determination. GO SNP a clean sweep of UK’s tax experts!
Are you drunk? Well of course you are. What the hell does any of that mean?
Jimmy, get back in your cell, it’s Friday night!!!
That is very insulting to the Sweaties. Jocks get drunk and arrested every night of the week.
They’ll have to listen to Scotland now!
Why? The Conservatives have a clear majority in Parliament and only one MP north of the border. They can (and will) do exactly what they’ll do to any other opposition party – ignore them.
They might listen but they wont understand the accent.
Accent? It’s just as well the ballot paper only required a cross.
Why, the SNP has no mandate in national UK governance? It only represents 4% of the national electorate, it is basically an irrelevance outside of its own borders.
No they won’t. 56 moaning Scots with no power, that is all the SNP MPs are.
Only moaning I see are the posts here, where are they from?
Obviously not from a country that can’t spell Grey!
Something else for you to moan about
Yep.
I’m surprised you can spell moaning, or mowning, or is it moning?
Ah, just make it up as you go along, like most things you do.
wow you really can moan, or is that becoming a whine now, you let me know you are the expert as well as a moron
1.45 million Scots voted for the SNP, that’s 4.7% of the national vote share and 50% of Scotland’s. With no national mandate they are toothless and impotent to effect any government policy. Once they are neutered for good by an English Parliament they can go their sweet way. Oh they tried that, how would that have worked out when the price of oil collapsed?
The SNP are like their fake currency, it isn’t recognised by the rest of the UK and even the Scots don’t realise that it’s worthless, yet.