[RCO]

( i just read this and found it all alot to believe but the debate seems to have really not worked out for either the conservatives or labour , and the third party the liberal democrats have surged in the polls after a strong performance by there leader , i don't know what happens next in this election is anyones guess as the uk conservatives should of had it in the bag )


Lib Dems in election poll surge
Nick Clegg: Election campaign "should be a contest of ideas"
Election opinion polls for Sunday's newspapers have suggested the Lib Dems are up by as many as eight points, putting them just behind the Tories.

The ComRes poll for the Sunday Mirror and Independent on Sunday puts the Conservatives on 31%, the Lib Dems on 29% and Labour on 27%.

The Tories warned of the dangers of a hung parliament while Labour said Lib Dem policies would get more scrutiny.

But Nick Clegg said people believed "something exciting" was happening.

The apparent swing follows the first prime ministerial TV debate on Thursday, in which Mr Clegg was acknowledged by his rivals to have shone.


We have no historical comparisons to help us judge whether this turbulence will now dominate the campaign

David Cowling,
Editor of the BBC's political research unit


Poll watch: Cowling analysis
Editor of the BBC's political research unit, David Cowling said what ComRes appeared to confirm was the "extraordinary shift in Lib Dem support as a result of the first prime ministerial debate".

However with two more debates to follow, he warned it was difficult to say if the swing would translate to votes on polling day.

When the results of the ComRes poll were fed into the BBC's seat calculator, it showed Labour would still have the most seats with 279, the Conservatives 239 seats and the Lib Dems 103 seats and others 29 seats. The ComRes poll of 1,006 people was conducted on 16 and 17 April.



David Cameron met parents at a nursery in Chipping Norton
Meanwhile, an ICM poll for the Sunday Telegraph puts the Conservatives on 34%, Labour on 29% and the Lib Dems on 27%. It says this is the Conservatives' lowest rating in an ICM poll since September 2007.

And the newspaper says this is the first time an ICM poll has shown such a narrow gap between the three main parties since September 2003. The majority of the 1,033 respondents were polled before Thursday's first prime ministerial debate.

Mr Clegg, speaking on a visit to Kingston Hospital in south west London, said: "I think change, real change is more possible than people think when a growing number of people start thinking, believing, that maybe we can do things differently.

"I think that is what is starting. I can't predict what is going to happen in the election campaign, but I think something exciting is starting to happen."

Asked if by "something different" he meant a formal coalition, he said: "I don't think we should put the cart before the horse."

But he said that more people were turning away from the "old politics" of Labour and the Conservatives.

'Big issues'

Mr Cameron told people in Gloucester that a hung parliament "would be a bunch of politicians haggling, not deciding".

"They would not be making long-term decisions for the country's future, they would be making short-term decisions for their own future," he said.

In an email to party activists, shadow chancellor George Osborne admitted Mr Clegg had put in a "good television performance".

But he said the Lib Dems would now face the "real scrutiny of their policies they have avoided for so long," on issues such as Trident, prison sentences and business taxes.



Gordon Brown met local party activists in Milton Keynes
Gordon Brown, campaigning in Bedford, said the election was not about style and personality but about the big issues.

"Let's make sure we have the recovery and don't let the Conservatives wreck the recovery," he continued.

Although he did not mention the Lib Dems - whose campaign is based around "fairness" - Mr Brown did end his speech by insisting the Labour Party were "greatest force for fairness in the country".


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_.....627745.stm

[Habsrwfan]

Cameron is an uninspiring all-over-the-political-map leader. There's no real coherent theme to his party's platform.

So, what's happening is that...

1) Brits have come to loath Labour

2) Cameron is starting to lose his appeal as a protest-Labour option.

3) So, now the electorate are giving the Lib Dems a serious look.


It's going to be a wild unpredictable election in Britain.

[Cool Blue]

When's the vote?

[RCO]

cbc.ca, Updated: April 17, 2010 9:27 PM
British election upended by TV debates

The old order in British politics seems thoroughly shattered following the country's first-ever televised leaders' debates, with two new weekend polls suggesting the country's traditional third party, the Liberal Democrats, has an unprecedented chance at being in government.

The polls were taken after Thursday's TV debate, the first ever in a British election campaign and the first of three to be held before the May 6 vote. Both put Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour Party in third place in a horse race with Liberal Democratic Leader Nick Clegg and the Conservative Party's David Cameron.

The Lib Dems, as they're widely known in Britain, haven't topped a national poll since 1983, and haven't been in government since their predecessor, the Liberal Party, ruled in the early 20th century.

A poll for The Sun newspaper taken Friday had the Tories at 33 per cent, the Lib Dems at 30 and Labour at 28. A Daily Mail poll had Clegg's party in front at 32 per cent, with the Conservatives at 31 and Labour at 28.

The results suggest Britain may be headed for its first minority Parliament since February 1974, which lasted all of eight months before another election was called.

Both surveys also hint at a looming constitutional crisis. Because of the British first-past-the-post voting system, seat projections show Labour could keep a plurality in the House of Commons, while the Lib Dems may win the popular vote but still finish a distant third in the constituency count.

The Liberal Democrats — a left-leaning party that opposed the 2003 Iraq invasion, favours greenhouse-gas reductions and would hike taxes on mansions — have for years appealed for Britain to introduce a more proportional form of representation.

"The game changer really would be if a coalition allowed the Liberal Democrats to get the electoral reforms they want," said Steven Fielding, a professor politics at the University of Nottingham.

Debates a big boost to Clegg

Clegg's popularity surged in the wake of Thursday's debate, according to the Sun's survey, with nearly twice as many voters saying he would make the best prime minister after than before the debate.

The Liberal Democrats had been polling around 20 per cent before the TV encounter, but viewers rated 43-year-old Clegg the most honest, charismatic and relaxed leader, and near-majorities of respondents in several surveys said he'd won the contest.

Clegg hit important marks with the audience: He labelled the two largest parties "old and tired," called for an overhaul of the electoral system and promised to clean up politics, a reference to a scandal last year in which MPs claimed expenses for everything from pornography to moat maintenance.

His polling bump could be the merely ephemeral enthusiasm of a charmed public, but if not, it would upend Britain's traditional two-party order, in place since the 1920s. The Lib Dems' rocketing fortunes also threaten to derail the hopes of Tory Leader Cameron, who had been expected to capture 10 Downing Street from a flagging Brown.

If the Conservatives still capture the most seats but not a majority, it's unclear whether they could successfully court Clegg into a coalition. His party has never allied with the Tories before except during wartime, while it did shore up Labour briefly in 1977.

One thing is certain: The Liberal Democrats are no longer the after-thought third party from elections of yore, and that means Labour and the Conservatives will have them squarely in their sights.

"Now that we've made this a three-horse race rather than a two-horse race, they're going to be coming for us," former party leader Paddy Ashdown told the BBC. "We've got to be ready for it."

With files from The Associated Press


http://news.ca.msn.com/top-sto.....d=23925501

[RCO]

[potan]

The UK might actually be on the verge of electing its first atheist Prime Minister!

[DavidK]

Liking the leader of a party doesn't always translate into votes. Look at Jack Layton, he's very popular, but the man leads a party that the majority of Canadians will not want to see in charge of the national government.

I'm not a fan of Cameron, but I think the UK Conservatives will take government after May 5th. Maybe Lib Dem will see Official Opposition, but I doubt they'd form government.

[Habsrwfan]

I'm curious... in the event of a hung Parliament, and with, say, the Tories with 40% of the seats, the Lib Dems with 30% of the seats, and Labour with 25% of the seats (5% for 'other' parties), do you think there's any chance of a two-party coalition, and if so, which two parties are the ones most likely to go that route?

[DavidK]

[thurmas]

you guys don't understand the uk seat system to be blunt it's messed up. if you go on the bbc seat calculator even with labour in last place at 28% the libdems at 30 and the tories at 31 labour still wins the most seats, britian needs serious electoral reform.

[Jason Kauppinen]

[RCO]

[JBG]

[JBG]

[Cool Blue]