morning after

[raven]

Evan Harris lost his seat. Oh, God, why, why could this happen. He was my MP from 2005 to 2008 in Oxford West and Abingdon, and more than that, he's a good man and a good constituency MP: he's a thoughtful, smart, pro-science, pro-choice doctor who was a quietly understated force for good in Parliament. I note my flist as are upset about this as they are about the election as the whole, and they ought to be. He lost by 0.3% to the Tories. A Lib Dem MP, lost by 200 votes! This wasn't what was supposed to happen.

Oxford East was a Labour hold, thank goodness. It was declared at 3.30am, just before I went to bed. Sefton Central, the notional seat I voted in in 2005 - there's been a boundary change; in 2005 it was Crosby - has stayed resolutely Labour, despite the dire predictions of, well, just about everyone. The elected MP, Bill Esterson, is not the incumbent, so with a brand new Labour MP and no more Claire Curtis-Thomas, there's good there.

(Other local things: Caroline Lucas won in Brighton to be the first parliamentary Green MP; John Pugh, lovely lovely leatherfaced man, kept his seat in Southport; Nick Griffin was thankfully trounced in Barking.)

I keep thinking I ought to be more apologetic about being happy that Labour held the seats I vote in. Well... I'm not. I don't want a Conservative government, I hate the fucking Tories. They don't believe in distributive justice, they don't believe in queer rights, they were the party of Margaret Thatcher and Enoch Powell. I get told I shouldn't revisit the sins of the fathers on them - but no one tells me why I have to forgive.

And as for the Lib Dems... I'm sorry. I don't get the thing. They're a perfectly nice centrist party, I guess. But I don't understand how they can be contemplating coalition with the Tories for any reason other than power. I know, I know, "mandate", yes Nick Clegg we get it, blah blah blah. But mandate isn't, you know, cake. It isn't out there in the world. It's in your head. If they didn't get a majority of the seats in Parliament, I don't really see the argument for a Tory minority government being any stronger than a Lib-Lab coalition. A Lib-Tory coalition makes no ideological sense to me, but I have real fear that that's going to be where we end up.

edit: no, that is where we're going to end up. (thanks, proskynesis.)

Argh. Why did I even get up.

Comments

[bookwormsarah.livejournal.com]

I have tried to write a coherant post on similar lines, but keep deleting it in frustration. I am a Labour person, and I like and trust Gordon Brown. I infinitely prefer him to Tony Blair, and I think he is the best of the possible PMs. I partially understand the reasons behind Nick Clegg talking to the Tories - they have the most seats and it makes sense on some level, but politically they are widely apart. I'm watching that space.

Labour held Durham City, Labour gained Bethnal Green and Bow, Labour held Birmingham Edgbaston. I cling to these thoughts. I am sure it is just tiredness that makes me feel like crying.

Ugh, Conservatives have broken 300 seats.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I don't trust and like Gordon Brown as much as I did once, and that goes double for Labour. But... who else? You know? I voted Labour because, in the end, there isn't a choice, is there.

In short: I am right there with you. Argh.