Official election results thread

[Malcolm]

OK, so here it is. As things stand, the map's being painted blue down south, and Labour are holding out in Scotland pretty well having only lost two seats so far.

SNP have won Fife Central, and we're Fife North East so I'll be interested to see the knock-on effects. I'm also waiting on Edinburgh Pentlands as it's my home constituency (although I had to vote here instead because my postal vote got lost )

Full live coverage on TV or click here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/default.stm

[James Shield]

I think we should also wish St Andrews student Alastair Cooper the best of luck in Galloway & Upper Nithsdale. I don't know him personally, but I think it's admirable that he's running to be an MSP.

[ascii]

SNP are gaining momentum. 7 seats so far, but 4 of them are gains. Big win for Salmond in Gordon from third place - that was a potential banana skin.

Tories still to get off the mark.

Did anyone see this story?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edi ... 622105.stm

[[James]]

Does anyone else think the high proportion of spoils isn't necessarily a bad thing? If people are too stupid to understand that you put an X on one paper and numbers on the other, perhaps they can't be trusted to elect a government?

[nighteyes]

I am so not sleeping tonight. There are so many spoilt ballots and problems with the counts.

[hr]

i didnt say i was consistant, just right!

[ascii]

Quoting [James] from 03:38, 4th May 2007
Does anyone else think the high proportion of spoils isn't necessarily a bad thing? If people are too stupid to understand that you put an X on one paper and numbers on the other, perhaps they can't be trusted to elect a government?

I see what you mean, but when the number of spoiled balots jumps up at the same time as new electronic voting machines are introduced, it at least merits investigation.

[nighteyes]

Nicola Sturgeon has taken Glasgow Govan. First time for the SNP in Glasgow. My mum wont be happy, she cant stand that woman.

[hr]

i didnt say i was consistant, just right!

[ascii]

Updates stolen from the excellent Brian Taylor's blog on the bbc website:

On spoiled ballots: "One of my readers has told me that they were given advice to fold their ballot paper - despite the guidance, nationally, that they shouldn't."

So it's not quite as stupid as putting crosses in the wrong place.

And the lib dems have taken Dunfermline West, like they did in the bye election last year. Gordon Brown's backyard - significant? I'm sure some in the press will say so.

[Frank]

Dunfermline East would've been my constituency had I voted at home. By my recollection (can't be bothered checking online), it seems there's now SNP in Central Fife (east of Gordon Brown) and Lib Dems in the west (Dunfermline West), I don't recall the other constituencies nearby, but it isn't looking too hopeful therabouts.

Having said that, my inclination is that waking tomorrow will see a Labour-LibDem coalition again being the prevailing wind (depite my pref being for an SNP-LibDem coalition).

Whilst I was (as usual) impressed by Salmond's speech I was also (as usual, again) impressed by how long he can talk for without losing momentum. Which I suspect is probably a bad thing!

[hr]

"There is only ever one truth. Things are always black or white, there's no such thing as a shade of grey. If you think that something is a shade of grey it simply means that you don't fully understand the situation. The truth is narrow and the path of the pursuit of truth is similarly narrow."

[Colin]

Lib Dem hold for NE Fife.

[ascii]

Quoting Frank from 04:18, 4th May 2007
Having said that, my inclination is that waking tomorrow will see a Labour-LibDem coalition again being the prevailing wind (depite my pref being for an SNP-LibDem coalition).

I don't think we'll see anything agreed as soon as tomorrow. We're in for an interesting couple of weeks of horsetrading.

[nighteyes]

Thats the Bishopbriggs center closed due to technical problems and to recount tomorrow afternoon. This is a joke.

And Edinburgh is just broken completely

[hr]

i didnt say i was consistant, just right!

[Frank]

Quoting ascii from 04:31, 4th May 2007

Quoting Frank from 04:18, 4th May 2007
Having said that, my inclination is that waking tomorrow will see a Labour-LibDem coalition again being the prevailing wind (depite my pref being for an SNP-LibDem coalition).

I don't think we'll see anything agreed as soon as tomorrow. We're in for an interesting couple of weeks of horsetrading.

Well, tomorrow may have been an exaggeration, but my suspicion is that the SNP won't be in as good a position as I'd have liked (ie Labour'll have done better than expected)

[hr]

"There is only ever one truth. Things are always black or white, there's no such thing as a shade of grey. If you think that something is a shade of grey it simply means that you don't fully understand the situation. The truth is narrow and the path of the pursuit of truth is similarly narrow."

[ascii]

Sorry Frank, I wasn't meaning to be pedantic over time scales.

I agree - the SNP are getting a big swing, but whenever I refresh the bbc page the Labour seats keep on clocking up...

[Colin]

Tories have taken one of the Borders seats off of the Lib Dems (Roxburgh and Berwickshire), and the other one (my home one) will be close run thing with the SNP. Hmm, not a good night for the Lib Dems.

And this sort of farce is making a mockery of the whole process. It isn't going to give anyone any more faith in the Scottish Parliament.

[Iain]

Most of Glasgow and surroundings, die-hard Labour areas, have had a bit of a shock but still elected Labour MSP's, hence their lead.

Something like 3 or 4 seats have a swing away from the SNP; the SNP will take back this Labour lead, substantially, on the list ballot.

The voting trouble, well, there's some first class numpties who organised this, developed this, ran this and voted using this. It's a disgrace and as Fergus Ewing says, we need a fully independent enquiry. Frankly, I'd call the UN. Shambles, utter shambles.

Now for some sleep!

[hr]

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~snpsoc

[Colin]

Sheridan loses.

Well at least one thing has gone well tonight.

[Amorphous]

Out of interest, does anyone know why the count for Tayside North has been delayed/suspended? The BBC page mentioned it but didn't mention why.

To be honest it's probably one of the safest SNP seats there is, but it would still be good to know the result.

[hr]

If Jack Bauer was put in a room with Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Nina Myers and handed a gun with two bullets, he'd shoot Nina twice.

[maenad]

Anyone know why we voted in pencil? I asked the woman at the polling station and she just said it'd always been that way. Isn't this the kind of thing you should absolutely use pen for?

[hr]

Tommy can you hear me?

[Odysseus]

Its currently 32/31 Labour to SNP, its going to go right down to the wire. Either way, given the number of spoiled ballots, its going to be hard to take this election seriously.


Still, its good to see the Lib Dems and Tories get an absolute beating for being political non-entities, its just a shame so many thousands wasted their votes by going for them!

[hr]

Walk into the bright lights of sorrow, oh drink a bit of wine and we both might go tommorow, my love...