Westminster election in the north

put that in your pipe and smoke it Ritchie and the rest of those SDLP clampits!!

Great result.

Regardless of seats McGuinness muts be one of the favourites for the first minister's job now!

Massive result for Gildernew and the Nationalist people of Fermanagh/South Tyrone.

Thought Gildernew had a chance then discounted it when it was pointed out that 9 outa 10 SDLP voters had to switch only half did so either the unionists never came out or they have declined significantly

Denis Irwin wrote: Came across an interesting stat that said based on the total votes received that Labour and the Cúntservatives  only needed an  average of 33,000 or so votes to win a seat but the Lib Dems needed around 120,000 which is completely fcuked up . Clegg would be an idiot to sign up to any agreement with Cameron that didn't have electoral reform guaranteed in it.

I do agree entirely with electoral reform for Britain; FPTP belongs in the 19th century (along with the conservatives), although it really isn't an issue 'amongst the people', because they're use to what they've got. Also, 'electoral reform' is very vague; Lib Dems want PR, Labour want AV. PR might be fairer, but it would completely destroy the constituency based system, which I think is important as it gives people a directly accountable representative they can go to with issues (granted I'm sure the % of people that actually do this is small, but its an issue of principle). AV would be good for keeping the Tories out, but it wouldn't make that much difference overall, have a look here at what BBC reckon the different voting systems would have meant in 2005.

But I do agree that Clegg would be stupid for going into coalition with the Tories, he will alienate some of his own MPs, as well as potential support. I think there will be another election before the end of the year (the bookies agree), the Tories will be going for the majority because nobody else can afford to fight another election, Labour are nearly skint! They'd be going for the jugular! 

You can't blame him to be honest, anyone would on such a narrow margin, especially given that each recount produced different results as far as I'm aware; same thing happened in 2001. I think it's made easier given that Michelle hasn't been sworn in yet at Westminster, not that she's planning on any time soon! Hope the election court show them the door swiftly enough!