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Let’s spark some new liberal ideas with a writing competition

By Chris Read | Sun 10th May 2015 - 1:59 pm

Like many Liberal Democrats I’ve been doing a lot of thinking today, and I’ve come up with an idea I’d like to share – It’s something a bit different but given the situation some ‘different thinking’ is going to be required. So I’m sharing my idea here to see if people think it’s a go-er and maybe one or two other places, while the idea is still fresh in my mind. Then I may write to the Party Presidents office with the idea.

I’d better start by saying that I am a wannabe writer in my spare time and have written short story and have one completed novel and a few new ones on the go!

So here is the idea – A writing competition for members and supporters. My initial idea was for a short story competition, but to open up the idea to members who are not so sure about writing fiction, I would suggest a parallel competition for non-fiction pieces.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged liberal democrat philosophy and writing competition | 9 Comments

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Opinion: We need a positive and distinct liberal identity. And then we must burn it into the consciousness of the electorate.

By Julian Gregory | Sun 10th May 2015 - 12:03 pm

Voters have rewarded parties with strong, positive messages and punished those with more equivocal positions.

The two clear winners of the election were the Tories and UKIP, which more than quadrupled its share of the national vote compared to 2010.

Most voters pay very little attention to politics, but even they knew what these two parties stood for. Vote Tory for an economic plan that is working and to avoid instability under Labour and the SNP. Vote UKIP to cut immigration and reclaim our national sovereignty.

Labour and the Lib Dems, the two main losers, both had messages that were in some sense equivocal.

Labour spent five years vacillating between the Blairite centre ground and being the party of the Left that Ed Miliband clearly wanted it to be. And in the pressure of an election campaign, it settled for being an ‘austerity lite’ option, reluctant to confirm that it would spend more than the Tories.

The Lib Dems deliberately chose an equivocal message. We said that we wouldn’t focus only on the economy or on addressing inequality, but rather would do a bit of both. And we defined ourselves by reference to the two main parties and largely negatively; we aren’t cruel like the Tories, and we won’t trash the economy like Labour.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged future strategy and liberalism | 96 Comments

Opinion: Bloody but unbowed, we must pick our battles quickly

By Tom King | Sun 10th May 2015 - 10:25 am

The pain of Thursday night and Friday morning will take a long time to heal. But politics, like time, is an ever-rolling stream, and while our party’s dreams may have died long before the opening day, there is never the luxury of standing still or turning inwards.

Already, and encouragingly, this already seems to have been reflected in a groundswell of renewed support from more than 2000 party members. I myself, as a formerly rather passive Liberal Democrat, feel deeply ashamed of my lack of active campaigning when it was needed most. We absolutely need to turn those feelings of guilt and anger into action.

The question will be where to focus our efforts. I want to argue that picking our battles deliberately and quickly is vital.

Twitter and Facebook might be full of people pointing out the unfairnesses of First Past the Post; people might even be actively questioning the legitimacy of the Conservatives’ majority. But that is irrelevant. The reality is that we have a Tory government, and probably for most of the next five years – unless they try to repeal the Fixed Term Parliaments Act they claimed as a major achievement in their manifesto.

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Posted in News | 21 Comments

Opinion: Political education is essential to get young people into politics

By Ellen McDonnell | Sun 10th May 2015 - 9:03 am

View image | gettyimages.com

Disengagement in politics is a growing concern, especially for my generation. Many claim they don’t know how the system works, who to vote for or don’t feel that their vote can make a difference. Thus, action needs to be taken to engage young people in politics and the as a Lib Dem member I am convinced that they are the right party for the job.

The problem stems from schools, there is a lack of political and economic education, which I feel should be made compulsory. No one told me what first-past-the post was or how the House of Lords works. My passion for politics provided me with the drive to learn and become engaged – so much so that I’m doing a degree in it! Undoubtedly, not everyone shares my passion, we all have differing interests, but that doesn’t mean that students shouldn’t be provided with political education. In Wales, learning Welsh is compulsory until 16, yet politics didn’t feature on my curriculum once during my time in school. Surely being educated in the political system that governs my country, is just as if not more important that learning a second language. Students should be made aware of the importance of voting, learn about how the economy works and the role both economics and politics play in their lives.

It is very easy to say that young people don’t care about politics, when the truth is that many don’t understand politics because no one cared enough to tell them about it. Not only this, it is often argued that politicians reward older generations for their votes with fuel allowances, whilst my generation seem to gain very little. This excludes young people further from the political sphere, as a lack of political education combined the feeling of disregard for young voices creates further disengagement.

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Posted in News | Tagged political education and young people | 18 Comments

There’s a whole load of hat eating going on in the world

By The Voice | Sat 9th May 2015 - 10:02 pm

Paddy Ashdown will probably never live down his statement that he’d eat his hat if the exit poll was right. On Question Time last night, they made him actually do it. Sort of. Here’s the video, from the Telegraph:

He’s not the only one who has eaten a hat in the last day or so. Remember that nice Mike Beckett, candidate for Scarborough and Whitby whose cartoon we featured a couple of months ago? He had a bit of a special birthday during the election and decided to celebrate it with a hat-shaped cake.

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Posted in News | Tagged humour, mike beckett and paddy ashdown | 11 Comments

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Lib Dem/Tory waverers wanted continuity, but they voted Conservative to achieve it

By Nick T | Sat 9th May 2015 - 6:59 pm

It was always going to be true that the 30 or so seats where the fight was between the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives would end up delivering one of the most important stories of election night 2015. Liberal Democrats hoped, of course, that this would be for the reason that they were the hallmark of the party’s resilience. But they were newsworthy in the end because they were symbols of the Lib Dem defeat, and the vehicles of delivery of a Conservative victory.

That the tens of thousands of voters in those seats who wavered between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives were the most important of this campaign had been known to both governing parties, of course, for months if not years. They were ruthlessly targeted from every angle: leaflets, phone-calls and visit after visit by senior politicians.

And in the end they made their decision, and they made it in David Cameron’s favour. The prime minister’s message, that only a Conservative vote could guarantee continuity and avoid the risk of a Miliband-Sturgeon government, ultimately prevailed.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged 2015 general election and featured | 230 Comments

Opinion: Time for constitutional reform..but not the way you think

By George Potter | Sat 9th May 2015 - 5:28 pm

It’s time for constitutional reform – of the Liberal Democrats. We need to redesign our party structures to make them fit for the challenges we face.

While there has to be a big debate on what needs change and what the best options are, here’s a rundown of options worth considering:

1. Either abolish membership fees or create an associate membership which costs nothing and has some of the privilege of full members. Why should you have to pay to join our movement instead of donating when you wish and are able to?

2. Reduce barriers to participation within the party. This means introducing one member, one vote everywhere in the party and should involve eliminating, or heavily reducing, the period of membership required to be able to vote in internal elections. In the Canadian Liberal’s leadership election the winning campaign signed up over 100,000 new members alone with the incentive of being able to vote for the party leader – why can’t we do something similar?

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged internal party organisation and liberal democrats | 59 Comments

Sir Malcolm Bruce writes.. We need to be a united campaigning force doing what we do best

By Malcolm Bruce | Sat 9th May 2015 - 4:31 pm

I sent this to the party’s Chief Executive Tim Gordon and thought that Liberal Democrat Voice readers would be interested in it.

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Posted in Op-eds | 18 Comments

Opinion: The next 5 years will bring a much greater appreciation of what we did in coalition

By Phil Reilly | Sat 9th May 2015 - 3:30 pm

For the last seven years, I have had the privilege of working for Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats.

So I’m sure you can understand that the last 48 hours have been pretty tough. Whatever you think of the party, our politics or the decisions we took, there are currently thousands of individuals who have given blood, sweat and tears in the name of our cause who have been bluntly and brutally rejected at the ballot box.

It is a tragedy for the party and for the political cause we believe in: the belief that Britain is at its best when it is open-minded, open-hearted, tolerant and generous.

My job until Friday morning was to be Nick’s speechwriter. It’s the best job I have ever had and will probably ever have. I cannot begin to express my admiration for a man who did the right thing, took a vicious public lashing for it every day and took it all with good grace, good humour and the conviction to keep going because we had a vital job to do.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged general election 2015, liberalism and nick clegg | 20 Comments

Opinion: Where now?

By Hamish Mackenzie | Sat 9th May 2015 - 2:15 pm

View image | gettyimages.com

Over the last two years I have worked as a campaign organiser with Lib Dem MPs in the Highlands and Islands. However, after last night’s terrible results that is now over for me. I can’t pretend that I am not bitterly disappointed, not merely for myself but because we have lost some of the finest politicians of this generation from the Commons, at a time when experienced level headed liberals are needed most. Many excellent Constituency Organisers, who I have worked with, have now lost their jobs and many wonderful volunteers have given up their time and effort and feel like it has come to nothing in so many places. All of this is through no fault of their own and in spite of running brilliant ground campaigns as Lib Dems so often do. But, hey, that’s democracy.

As Lib Dems we are hurting; every member, activist and supporter should feel hard done by because we went into coalition because it was in the national interest and we’re being punished for it. Our opponents and the media have now written us off as a sideshow or an irrelevance, but I truly believe that we can come back, that we can once again act as a constructive alternative to the “red to blue to red to blue” politics that we’ve all campaigned against for so long.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged future strategy | 24 Comments

A message from Willie Rennie

By The Voice | Sat 9th May 2015 - 1:55 pm

This message came out from Willie Rennie to all Scottish members this afternoon. As ever he strikes the right tone:

Scotland has lost liberal giants. Our Members of Parliament were local champions with powerful liberal voices. They enriched the political debate of our country.

I am sad for the loss to our party, to their communities and to the politics of our country. I know they will make a contribution to rebuilding our strength.

We can proud of many of our achievements in government. We brought stability, unity and decency in tough economic times. Getting the economy back on track and doing it fairly, the biggest tax cuts ever for workers, the green investment bank, big childcare expansion, big pension increases, ending child detention at Dungavel, a multi-billion pound international budget guaranteed and more powers for the Scottish Parliament are just the start of a long list of achievements.

We have an ongoing duty to the people who voted for us to promote liberal values.

That duty is even important in the face of a Conservative majority at Westminster, already planning to bring back the Snoopers Charter that we blocked in Government.

And in the Scottish Parliament the job goes on with the centralising and often illiberal agenda being pursued by the SNP.

We will heed the lessons and message of the election result.

It has been a body blow to our party but that over 2,000 new members have joined the party in just one day gives me great hope.

Thank you for your tireless support throughout this and every campaign. That we came so close to victory in many seats is a testament to your campaigning efforts.

Our vision for Scotland is hopeful for the future, founded on opportunity and liberty for all. It is a positive prospectus.

A year from now we have an opportunity to grow. The Scottish Parliamentary Election campaign starts today.

Best wishes,

Willie Rennie MSP

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Posted in News | Tagged willie rennie | 6 Comments

Charles Kennedy writes… The night of the long sgian dubhs

By Charles Kennedy | Sat 9th May 2015 - 12:12 pm

View image | gettyimages.com

I am very fond of political history. If nothing else, we can all reflect on and perhaps tell our grandchildren that we were there on “The night of long sgian dubhs!”

I would very much like to thank my home team. They have been so energetic, dedicated and selfless to the task. Indeed, with them, I would like to thank the very many over the years who have made possible the previous seven successful general election campaigns locally.

I spare a thought for, and this is true of so many constituencies, for members of staff. It is one thing for elected representatives to find themselves at the mercy of the electorate; it is quite something else for the other loyal and skilled people who, sadly, will in due course be searching for employment. I wish them well and stand ready to help. I am sure that their professionalism will stand them in good stead.

It has been the greatest privilege of my adult and public life to have served, for 32 years, as the Member of Parliament for our local Highlands and Islands communities. I would particularly like to thank the generation of voters, and then some, who have put their trust in me to carry out that role and its responsibilities.

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Posted in News | Tagged featured | 79 Comments

Opinion: Where now for liberalism?

By Sean Davey | Sat 9th May 2015 - 10:43 am

Over the next few days, weeks and months there are a few grim but necessary processes which the Liberal Democrats (not to mention Labour and UKIP also) will have to go through: electing a new leader, debating the purpose and ideology that guides the party, and ultimately regrouping to lick our collective wounds.

Perhaps more important than the theatrics of these things unfolding, is the question well what’s next? The decimation of the party as a parliamentary force – following on from the sustained loss of local government Liberal Democrats over the past five years – has disrupted the status quo, and now more than ever a new generation will need to rise up to carry the torch of Liberalism.

Unlike Labour and the Conservatives with their safe seats even when relegated to the opposition benches this does not simply mean a new leader, a new direction and “rising stars”. For the Liberal Democrats we really are back to building ourselves up as a party of local and national government.

In re-building the party we have a stark choice: change versus more of the same. I suspect this phrase will be banded about plenty in the ideological and strategic battles for the party’s soul and direction, but change must come in the ‘who’ as much as the ‘what’ and ‘why’.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged future strategy and liberalism | 41 Comments

Opinion: A new hope for electoral reform?

By T J Marsden | Sat 9th May 2015 - 9:17 am

Much will be said and written about what happened on the 7^th. But we need to think about what happens next now. We have been heavily defeated, and it would be easy to allow that defeat to set the mood and leave us paralysed. We must not let that happen.

The electoral system has delivered a result that bears little resemblance to the popular vote. Our own defeat has been amplified by this – as has been pointed out elsewhere, our parliamentary presence was within 25,000 votes of being wiped out entirely. Imagine, two million votes for no representation at all. We need to work with the others who have been disenfranchised by the electoral system. The Greens, who went home with one seat for one and a half million votes. UKIP, who won the support of almost four million people but who also get but a single seat. The SNP might have benefited hugely from the system, but they are now looking at their seats being rendered powerless by EVEL, and also support reform

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Posted in News | Tagged electoral reform and future strategy | 46 Comments

Records smashed here at Liberal Democrat Voice – Our place to talk – thank you!

By The Voice | Sat 9th May 2015 - 8:15 am

View image | gettyimages.com

The Liberal Democrat family has been knocked sideways by disastrous election results. We’re also all cream crackered after working all hours for months.

But over 2,000 people joined the party yesterday.

And here on Liberal Democrat Voice you have helped to smash records.

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Posted in Site news | Tagged liberal democrat voice | 26 Comments

Opinion: Five quick thoughts on what we do next

By Rob Blackie | Fri 8th May 2015 - 6:58 pm

Firstly we all need to take a few days off. Losing so many of our MPs is incredibly painful – when we know how they were champions of liberalism, as well as great local representatives. It’s easy for us to post-rationalise our problems to fit our existing prejudices, but smarter to take a short break.

Secondly we shouldn’t assume that everything winners do is good, and everything losers do is stupid. There are doubtless many things we did wrong, but not everything we did was wrong. Equally while we may have been hit hard by the other parties, we shouldn’t assume that aping them is the right solution.

Thirdly we should recognise that our problems fighting Labour, the Tories and the SNP may be very different. It is unlikely that there is one message or campaign technique that will allow us to be successful against all of these opponents.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged future strategy | 72 Comments

Opinion: where do we go from here?

By RIchard Clifton | Fri 8th May 2015 - 5:38 pm

I was a member of the Labour Party, but in the nineteen eighties joined the Social Democratic Party when it split away. In 1983 the Labour Party was committed to leaving the European Union. I saw the SDP as having the pro-European, internationalist outlook that the Labour Party had abandoned.

By 1997 I had arrived in the new Liberal Democrat Party after the SDP merged with the Liberals. The Conservative MP for the constituency I was then in, Carshalton and Wallington, produced an interesting leaflet arguing that the Lib Dems were well to the left of “new” Labour. He aimed to deter people from voting for such radicalism, but it strengthened my support for the Lib Dems. When we were the only party opposing the Iraq war, I felt the party was positioned in the right place on the political spectrum, a party espousing liberal, radical and reformist policies, concerned about the environment, the welfare state and the socially excluded, while opposed to militarism. I want us to get back there.

Since 2010 it has been events that have re-positioned the party rather than decisions to re-position ourselves. Given the election outcome in 2010 and the sense of national crisis – a hung Parliament, a failing economy – there was no responsible option but to enter coalition. Undoubtedly we did not say clearly enough that this was an alliance of people with quite different philosophies and outlooks, forged in the national interest, and that coalition means that some things not in your manifesto and not what you would have really wanted would be done.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged featured and future strategy | 104 Comments

5pm update: the final score

By Mary Reid | Fri 8th May 2015 - 5:10 pm

We need to complete our roll-call of Lib Dem target seats. Tessa Munt lost to the Conservatives in Wells, Andrew George also lost in St Ives, and Julie Pörksen failed to take the seat in Berwick, previously held by Alan Beith.

That leaves us with just eight MPs:

Nick Clegg

Tim Farron

Norman Lamb

Greg Mulholland

Tom Brake

John Pugh

Mark Williams

Alistair Carmichael

We do have to congratulate them for bucking the trend, and to wish them all the best in the future as they uphold Lib Dem values in the Commons – but it is difficult for anyone to feel joyous when surrounded by the carnage.

The updates since close …

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Posted in News | 9 Comments

Sal Brinton – Libby is our phoenix

By The Voice | Fri 8th May 2015 - 4:18 pm

Here is Party President Sal Brinton’s video address to members this afternoon:

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Posted in News | Tagged featured, liberal democrats and sal brinton | 41 Comments

Nick Clegg resigns as leader

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 8th May 2015 - 12:22 pm

Nick Clegg has said that he needs to take responsibility for the “crushing” election result for the Liberal Democrats and he resigned with great dignity.

He said that the election had been crushing, much more so than he expected and he had to take responsibility for that. He then went on to quote Edinburgh Western candidate Alex Cole Hamilton’s tweet after the 2011 Scottish election. Alex said that if the price of his defeat was that no child would spend a night in an immigration detention centre again, then he accepted it with all his heart. Nick gave a passionate defence of the good things we’d done in government and said that he thought history would judge us more kindly than last night.

He then talked passionately about the need for British liberalism. He acknowledged it wasn’t faring well against identity politics and the politics of fear but it was really needed.

Fear and grievance have won. Liberalism has lost. But it is more precious than ever and we must keep fighting for it.

It is easy to imagine there is no road back. There is.

This is a very dark hour for our party but we cannot and will not allow decent liberal values to be extinguished overnight.

We’ll update this post with reaction to Nick’s resignation. I’ll write at greater length about his leadership when I’ve had some sleep, but I have huge admiration for the man. He has borne the difficulties of the last five years with dignity, good grace, humour and resilience. He has been ridiculed by vested interests from left and right. You could argue that any Liberal Democrat leader in such a position would have faced exactly the same. He’s made mistakes, from the Rose Garden to secret courts to the bedroom tax to the one that everyone associates with him. Here’s his statement in full.

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Posted in News | Tagged featured, general election 2015, liberal democrats and nick clegg | 124 Comments

ALDE Party Council preview: remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue…

By Mark Valladares | Fri 8th May 2015 - 10:32 am

Whilst most of you will either be at your count (and good luck to you all!) or sitting in front of a television set or a computer watching the results come in, your correspondent will be in a hotel room in Oslo. Yes, it’s time once again for liberals from across Europe to gather and tell the British how sorry they are for the result/share the love and tell us things will get better/express surprise at how well we did (delete as appropriate). And despite exhaustion and uncertainty, a small, depleted and wholly male delegation will be there to fly the Liberal Democrat flag.

So, what are we there for, apart from the joy of discovering that a second mortgage is required to buy a beer?

Council will be opened with a speech from the Prime Minister of Norway… who isn’t a member of our host party, Venstre, but is leader of the Conservative Party. That said, the ruling minority coalition of the Conservatives and the Progress Party has a confidence and supply arrangement with Venstre and the Christian Democrats in the Storting to ensure its survival (and you thought that British politics was complex?).

The agenda for Council itself is unlikely to generate much excitement, although the membership application from the Liberal Party of Gibraltar is a welcome one, especially given their performance in the European Parliamentary election last year (the Liberal Democrat list – Gibraltar is part of the South West England region – gained 66% of the vote). There will also be a rationalisation of the Slovenes, as three of the five member parties there are expected to disaffiliate (they have, effectively, ceased to exist).

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged ALDE, europe and europe day | 14 Comments

9 am update: Where are we now?

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 8th May 2015 - 9:19 am

There are just two seats with Liberal Democrat interest left to declare and I think we’d be kidding ourselves if we thougth we were going to get anywhere with either of them. Tessa Munt’s Wells and Andrew George’s St Ives look like they will fall to the Tories.

Update: actually 3 – I forgot Berwick. There may be a possibility there, which would be great but I’m not overly hopeful, it has to be said.

So, our parliamentary party is:

Nick Clegg

Tim Farron

Norman Lamb

Greg Mulholland

Tom Brake

John Pugh

Mark Williams

Alistair Carmichael

The psychological effects of the loss of our heartlands will affect us for some time to come.

We will, of ocurse, need to evaaluate what went wrong, how we change and refresh our campaigning style and make ourselves relevant in a very difficult and challenging political environment.

The worst thing that could have happened has happened – a Tory overall majority. People who think the last five years have been a Tory government will soon see what they are like, particularly with their right wing unleashed to cause havoc. There will be a great need for liberalism as they seek to strip our human rights laws back to nothing and isolate us internationally.

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Posted in News | Tagged featured and general election 2015 | 124 Comments

Election night update: 6am – what do we do now?

By Mary Reid | Fri 8th May 2015 - 6:09 am

Charles Kennedy had to concede defeat by the SNP after representing in the wonderfully named constituency of Ross, Skye and Lochaber for 32 years. He will be sorely missed. And we have lost another much valued minister in Steve Webb in Thornbury and Yate. David Laws lost his traditional LibDem seat in Yeovil while Danny Alexander crashed in Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey.

Mike Crockart lost Edinburgh West, so did Simon Wright in Norwich South, John Hemming in Birmingham Yardley, Dan Rogerson in North Cornwall, Julian Huppert in Cambridge, Lorely Burt in Solihull, John Leech in Manchester Withington, Steve Gilbert in St Austell & …

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Posted in News | 90 Comments

Election night update: 5am – Nick Clegg safe, but many great campaigners are out

By Mary Reid | Fri 8th May 2015 - 4:59 am

Contrary to some rumours Nick Clegg held on to his seat, but with a reduced majority.

The biggest shock of the hour was Vince Cable’s result in Twickenham where he was beaten by the Conservatives.

But there were more staggering losses of wonderful campaigning Liberal Democrats. Simon Hughes was beaten in Bermondsey and Lynne Featherstone in Hornsey and Wood Green, both by Labour. Adrian Sanders (Torbay), Stephen Lloyd (Eastbourne) and Paul Burstow (Sutton and Cheam) all succumbed to the Tories. And in Aberdeenshire West & Kincardine Robert Smith lost to the SNP.

Steve Bradley was unsuccessful in Bath, following Don Foster’s retirement.

But it was heartening to see Tom …

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Posted in News | 15 Comments

It’s 1966? 1964? all over again

By Paul Walter | Fri 8th May 2015 - 4:58 am

We thought the exit poll of 10 seats for the Lib Dems was wrong

Now we are struggling to see how we will get there, to ten

Posted in News | 7 Comments

Election night update: 4am – it gets worse

By Mary Reid | Fri 8th May 2015 - 4:06 am

Tim Farron is back in Parliament, safely elected in his Westmorland & Lonsdale constituency, and so is Alistair Carmichael in Orkney & Shetland who safely resisted the SNP advance.

But sadly we have lost Ed Davey in Kingston & Surbiton (to the Conservatives), Jenny Willott in Cardiff Central (to Labour), Duncan Hames in Chippenham and Mike Thornton in Eastleigh.

We also lost three seats that we were defending after the incumbant had retired – Redcar, Brent Central and North East Fife.

Follow the election night live blog here.

Posted in News | 1 Comment

Election night update: 3am – some good news, but more bad

By Mary Reid | Fri 8th May 2015 - 3:01 am

The first good news of the night came when Mark Williams held on to his seat in Ceredigion.

Then sadly we lost Jo Swinson in Denbartonshire East (to the SNP), and both Bob Russell in Colchester and Roger Williams in Brecon & Radnorshire (both to the Tories). Gordon Birtwhistle was beaten by Labour in Burnley.

Follow the election night live blog here.

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Election night update: 2am – the long wait

By Mary Reid | Fri 8th May 2015 - 2:04 am

More rumours and despondency.

Apparently Nigel Farage didn’t really want to win in South Thanet this time round; it was just a step in his strategy for 2020.

And John Curtice is suggesting that there is a serious possibility of a Conservative majority.

Follow the election night live blog here.

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Election night update: 1am – the night is dark

By Mary Reid | Fri 8th May 2015 - 1:02 am

No news of Lib Dem seats yet, but plenty of predictions and rumours that are not encouraging.

The BBC’s exit poll would leave us with just 10 MPs, all male. A Leadership election would be triggered, but the choice of Leader would be severely restricted because many of the big hitters would have lost their seats.

Too many lost deposits already. Not looking good.

Our live election blog is here.

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Election night update at midnight

By Paul Walter | Fri 8th May 2015 - 12:11 am

We’ve had three results and the House of Commons is currently 100% female.

The BBC/ITV/Sky exit poll gave us 10 seats.

Paddy has said he will eat his hat if that exit poll is true.

Nigel Farage is rumoured to have come third in Thanet South.

There is a rumour that Danny Alexander has lost his seat.

George Galloway is rumoured to have lost his seat in Bradford.

Our live election blog is here.

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