The Bad News, The Good News

[poliphilo]

We stayed up till 4, by which time the shape of the outcome was apparent. At 10 we had an appointment to test drive a Renault at the dealership on Manchester Road- and that's where we were when the numbers clicked over to the total beyond which the Tories lost any hope of an overall majority. Shortly afterwards the result from our own constituency (Oldham East) came in. Phil Woolas, the Immigration minister, is back after a double recount- and  I can take down the orange poster in the front bay window which says, Liberal Democrats Winning Here; it lied.

The bad news for democracy is that the third party breakthrough didn't happen. The good news for democracy is that there was an unexpectedly large voter turn-out. The bad news for democracy is that a lot of polling stations in urban areas- including parts of Manchester- couldn't cope with demand and hundreds of people were deprived of their vote. The good news for democracy is that in a climate of opinion where there is scant enthusiasm for any of the parties, no party won.

Comments

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Typically, urban areas tend to vote Labour, rural areas tend to vote Conservative. There are exceptions to this.
Have a look at the map here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/

The geographical view makes it look like it should be a massive Tory landslide. But if you click on the proportional view, you see it's far more balanced.