2010 General Election Results - Hung Parliament Is The Outcome, What Happens Now?

   

So, the country (or most of it) has had its say and it is quite clear from the results that Britain wants change.  Although he failed to get the magic number of 326 seats in the House of Commons, the Conservative Party and David Cameron have the most seats and this lunchtime, Cameron is the favourite to form a government in the coming days.

With 294 seats so far, the Tories did very well last night, though not the landslide that everyone predicted at the start of the year.  Labour finished a confident 2^nd, but lost at least 80 MP’s last night, and looks set to relinquish power in the country, after thirteen turbulent years of British politics.  The main Labour men, including Deputy Leader Harriet Harman and Peter Mandelson, had hoped that Gordon Brown would be able to strike a deal with the Liberal Democrats, to form a strong government.  Those final hopes were dashed at 10.45am, when Nick Clegg returned to the Liberal Democrats headquarters and confirmed, he thinks the Conservative Party should have first choice in being able to form the government.  Clegg has firmly put the ball in Cameron’s court now, with the condition to change the electoral reform system, which has plagued Britain in this election.

For the Liberal Democrats, it was a very disappointing outcome.  Nick Clegg had hope for nearly a hundred seats in the new House of Commons.  Instead, they dropped at least ten seats short of what they did in 2005.  After all the promise from the three hotly-contested TV debates, their potential turned as flat as a giant pancake.  This morning, he admitted the disappointment, but is still confident of positive change for the future. 

Despite not gaining the majority he was looking for, David Cameron seemed fairly satisfied with the result.  At 2.30pm today, he will release a statement to the media, with his plans of how to form a government.  The keys to No.10 are getting ever closer, and if he can work together with Clegg, by making some minor changes to his manifesto, for the best of the country, this ‘Hung Parliament’ combination might not be so bad.  However, with no overall winner, the chances of a five-year term look increasingly unlikely.

Gordon Brown has returned to Downing Street and as things stand, he is still Prime Minister.  However, he has released a statement suggested “he is open for discussion for civil parties to form a government, for the good of the country.”  Most people in Westminster seem to think that Brown has to step down today for the best of the UK.  I would agree with these suggestions, I struggle to see how Gordon can survive now, because although Labour figureheads will deny it, it was a bad night last night.  Although they prevented a landslide that hit the Tories in 1997, they lost a lot of seats, especially in the East Anglia region, with the Tories snatching Ipswich, Colchester, Northampton and Milton Keynes from long-standing Labour leaders.  I’m afraid Brown’s time is up, and the sooner he calls the removal van from Downing Street, the better for the country’s stability and its future.

The Green Party won a historic seat in Brighton, their first ever in the House of Commons and other significant figures that lost seats last night include former Education Secretary Charles Clarke, beaten in Norwich by the Liberal Democrats and the ex-Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, overcome by the Conservatives in Redditch, after thirteen successful years.  Ed Balls held onto his seat, denying the media a ‘Michael Portillo 1997’ moment.  He then went onto accuse Sky News of patriotism bias throughout the election campaign, much to the chagrin of its political Journalist, Adam Boulton, who looked flabbergasted by Ed’s outburst.

It means that we have our first Hung Parliament since 1974, and it is probably not what Britain needed, especially as we are still dealing with the fall-out from the crippling worldwide recession.  The question is now, can we cope with this scenario.  If the parties bang their head together, we might be able to limit the damage.  What I can say for sure, is that the future is very unpredictable for the country, anything is possible….anything.