Previous Blogs

Saturday, 9 May 2015

The Bigger They Are...

Nick Robinson of the BBC called it akin to a political firing squad, as overnight some of the biggest names in British politics either lost their seats or stood down as leader of their party. Political Sticks looks at the biggest falls from a truly exciting night in British politics.


Name:                     
Ed Miliband

Who?              
Leader of the Labour Party (2010 – 2015)
Leader of the Opposition (2010 - 2015)
Former Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (2008 – 2010)
Member of Parliament (2005 – 2015) 

 What?
Won his Doncaster North seat, and oversaw a Labour run to 26 fewer seats than in 2010. Ultimately the perception of his leadership never moved beyond the initial questions of his competence. Stood down this morning and, with the loss of Ed Balls, the 20+ year Blairite/Brownite stranglehold on the Labour Party is well and truly broken. The New Labour Project died years ago, but with the loss of these two Brownite titans it’s fair to say that the Labour Party has shed all recognisable relations with the most successful period in its history.



Name:            
                        Ed Balls

                        Who?              
                        Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (2010 – 2015)
Former Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (2007 – 2010)
Member of Parliament (2005 – 2015)
Husband of Yvette Cooper (Shadow Home Secretary)
Staunch Brownite and Miliband supporter
General all-round Labour/New Labour heavyweight

                        What?             
Not long after dawn this morning a flurry of excitement ran through the BBC newsroom. The news that a recount had been called in Morley and Outwood meant that one of Labour’s political heavyweights was in serious trouble. Ousted by a margin of 422 votes in favour of the Conservatives, Ed Balls could not have imagined his parliamentary career was, for the foreseeable future, over. In many ways the last great bastion of New Labour and Ed Miliband’s strongest ally, his loss made Miliband’s already precarious position as leader untenable.





Name: 
Nick Clegg

Who?
Deputy Prime Minister 2010 – 2015
Leader of the Liberal Democrats 2007 – 2015
Member of European Parliament 1999 – 2004

What?
After the first leaders debate prior to the 2010 General Election, Clegg-mania swept through a large part of the country. When all was said and done in 2010, the LibDems performance was largely on a par with previous elections (1997: 46 seats, 2001: 52 seats, 2005: 62 seats, and 2010: 57 seats). But this time Nick Clegg played kingmaker to David Cameron and secured a Tory/LibDem coalition.

Despite accomplishing a lot of the LibDems manifesto whilst in power, Clegg took the brunt of the blame for the LibDems going back on their promise to scrap tuition fees and never really recovered. Continuous questions over whether he would even win his seat in Sheffield. He did. But with the LibDems slipping to eight seats he had no choice but to resign.




Name:
Nigel Farage

Who?

Member of European Parliament 1999 - present
Chairman of Freedom and Democracy 2009 - 2014
Chairman of Freedom and Direct Democracy 2014 - present
Chairman of the UK Independence Party 1998 - 2000
Leader of the UK Independence Party 2010 - present

What?
The terrifying and troublesome dark-horse that was UKIP failed to materialise, or take many votes from the Conservatives and amid claims of an unfair voting system, the four million UKIP votes won won the party only one seat. 

Farage Failed to win his Thanet South seat. Kept his word and resigned as leader, but in true Farage-PR style, stage-managed his own comeback by leaving the door wide open for a return as soon as humanly possible. 

(**UPDATE:** On Tuesday, UKIP rejected Farage's resignation citing his outstanding performance and leadership of the party during the general election and he remains leader of the party).



Name:

Vince Cable

Who?
Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills 2010 - 2015
Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats 2007
Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats 2006 - 2010
Member of Parliament for Twickenham 1997 - 2015

What?
Possibly the LibDems biggest Titan, Cable was lauded as the saviour of the Tory/LibDem coalition in 2010. Owing to his background, it was widely thought that he should become Chancellor in the Cameron Administration. 'It's alright' people thought when a novice George Osborne stepped blinking in to 11 Downing Street, Cable will keep him in check. He failed to win his seat in Twickenham, bringing to an end an 18 year career as an MP.


Jim Murphy: The Scottish Labour leader failed to win his seat as the party took a hammering from the SNP north of the border. Will continue as Scottish Labour leader albeit amid suggestions that he wants to take the Scottish arm of the party in an altogether different direction.





Natalie Bennett: Never quite matched her Green predecessor, Caroline Lucas, in terms of charisma, policy, or leadership. The Green Party's anticipated victory of two seats didn't happen either.




Click on the links below to read previous content from Political Sticks:

Posted by at
Labels: , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)