Thursday 7 May 2015

The election countdown begins

Polls close in less than 48 hours!

The next few hours will determine the fate of the country for the next five years so it's make your mind up time. This will be one of the closest elections ever.

The first results will start arriving just after 11pm tonight and there will be some results worth staying up to see. There has been much speculation about the fate of Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg in Sheffield Hallam. Many observers thought he was on course to lose his seat as disgruntled voters and students in particular turned towards Labour in a bid to unseat him. However there is now an apparent move by Tory voters to tactically vote for Clegg as he would be key to maintaining the current coalition in power.

And worried they should be. Large numbers of Liberal Democrats with their backs clearly against the wall are openly rebelling against the prospect of a further coalition with David Cameron.

The "broke back coalition" as one dissident Tory MP described it is close to being broken.

A large number of Liberal Democrat MP's are expected to lose their seats tonight and amongst other things needs at least 30 seats for any future participation in Government to be viable.

Meanwhile he's not the only major politician in trouble. Jeremy Hunt, the man widely seen as responsible for making a mess of the NHS could lose his "safe" seat in Surrey to a GP. The Daily Mirror reported:

Dr Louise Irvine, of the National Health Action Party, is now 12/1 to take the Health Secretary's set in his South West Surrey constituency

A doctor is the bookies’ favourite to unseat Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt with a Lib Dem chief urging party supporters to back her.

The odds of Dr Louise Irvine, who is standing against Mr Hunt in his South West Surrey constituency, winning have now been offered at just 12/1.

Dr Irvine, a GP in Lewisham, South East London, led the successful Save Lewisham Hospital campaign which won a landmark legal battle to stop Mr Hunt shutting services.

A council member of the British Medical Association, which represents 150,000 doctors, she is running against Mr Hunt for the National Health Action party.

She says she is standing in opposition to his “cuts and privatisation of the NHS”.

Mr Hunt is still the overwhelming favourite to retain his seat, with odds of 1/50 offered by bookies Paddy Power.

But the revelation that one of the country’s most senior medics is the favourite to beat Mr Hunt at the ballot box will be embarrassing for the Tories - and Mr Hunt.


With the Liberal Democrat candidate suspended from standing in this constituency (over allegations surrounding the falsification of his nomination papers), Dr Irvine has been given a substantial boost.

Meanwhile George Galloway is under pressure in his Bradford fiefdom where the campaign has got just plain nasty with the gorgeous ones supporters even travelling to Pakistan to obtain "dirt" on the Labour candidate, a survivor of an abusive forced marriage.

Already Galloway is looking elsewhere to continue his political career.

On the fringes of politics we are told by the tiny remnants of the Workers Revolutionary Party that they are on target to obtain a big vote in of all places Ealing Central and Acton. The News Line, which they somehow manage to publish daily reports:

A LARGE Vote WRP, Vote Scott Dore campaign was out in Ealing Central and Acton yesterday. Many local people joined the WRP and promised to vote for Scott.

Eighteen-year-old Imhotep Bell-Sandy, who was on the team, said: ‘Scott’s doing a very good campaign, defending the NHS.....


Scott said: ‘The campaign is growing and we’re getting tremendous support, but we still have to continue to step it up. After the election we are determined to defend all jobs and services and lead the working class to take the power.’

Forward to the Ealing & Acton Soviet? I think not, but I'll look out for their result and report back to readers.

The big "winners" of the night are likely to be the Scottish Nationalists, though some of the more rural seats won't declare until late tomorrow tonight should see them making substantial gains.

All of this aside there remains only one viable alternative to the current incumbents, the Labour Party.


However democracy relies on you the voter, so with so much at stake please do vote and cast your vote wisely.

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