The British Election

Four weeks ago, I predicted that the UK general election would result in something like this:

• A Labour majority of sixty or seventy, down from the 166 of the old parliament.
• The Tories making modest gains in seats, but far short of overturning Labour
• The Liberal Democrats gaining about ten seats

Perhaps I should have put money on that, because it's precisely what actually happened.

I suspect a significant proportion of the electorate really wanted to see Labour reelected but with a sharply reduced majority. If people really wanted Michael Howard as PM, the Tories would have got more than a third of the vote! A lot of pundits claimed there was no way people could actually vote for 'Blair, but with a smaller majority', but that's precisely what the electorate actually did. Perhaps the great British public are cannier than the pundits think?

All three main parties are probably disappointed. Labour, of course, have lost a lot of seats. But the Tories can hardly claim to be on the road back to power. Their share of the vote was just once percentage point higher than last time round, and much of that was at the expense of UKIP. And while the Liberal Democrats made inroads into Labour territory, finishing up their biggest tally of MPs since the 1920s, they failed to gain any ground in their other front against the Tories.

As for the smaller parties, Robert Kilroy-Silk's political career is finished. With just 2000-odd votes, and fourth place, he's history, and good riddance. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the repellant George Galloway, who managed to win in east London with his unpleasant mix of Stalinism and Islamism. The high vote in many places by the far-right British National Party is also very worrying. I suspect the Tories heavy use of the immigration issue has played into their hands and increased their support.

The fact that Labour still won a 60 seat majority with just 37% of the popular vote means we do need to take a long, hard look at our antiquated and creaking electoral system, and consider alternatives. The case for electoral reform used to be made only by political anoraks and supporters of the Liberal Democrats, whose party suffered the most at the hands of the present system. But now questions are being asked across the whole of the political spectrum, which can only be a good thing.