Wow, what a night, though we all knew it was going to be sensational for many different reasons, with Lembit Opik and Jacqui Smith’s humiliating defeats among some of the shock results.
I was naturally thrilled that 
we won in York Outer where a very close campaign was fought between Conservative candidate Julian Sturdy and his Lid Dem rival Madeleine Kirk, who was tipped to win.
It was always neck and neck and a top target seat for both parties who were desperate for success. However, Julian’s honest campaign convinced voters that he should be the first MP of this new constituency, and he well deserves his outstanding success, particularly in light of the so-called Lib-Dem bounce which failed to materialise here. He won with a majority of almost 3,700. I was ecstatic when I heard about Julian’s victory, and he is pictured here with his lovely wife Victoria.
As well as campaigning on local issues to protect the green belt and NHS issues, particularly the withdrawal of spinal injections for chronic back pain sufferers, Julian’s work as a farmer will bring much needed knowledge into parliament as agricultural issues have been lamentably ignored by Labour.
*I would also like to congratulate Nigel Adams on his outstanding success in Selby & Ainsty, and he also had to contend with a house move at the beginning of his campaign too. He secured almost double the votes of Labour, and almost three times as many as Lib Dems.
*I instantly sent a text last night to Rob Halfon MP on hearing about his well deserved success after 10 years as a candidate; that in itself is a testament to his commitment for Harlow. I fired off a similar message to the inexhaustible Louise Bagshawe, now MP for Corby. Both Rob and Louise beat Labour ministers to secure their Westminster seats, and I congratulate them both and know they will be outstanding.
*My two personal biggest disappointments of the night were that Nigel Huddleston failed to win Luton South back from Labour, though neither did Esther Rantzen, despite her extensive national coverage in the national press, and I feel for Janice Small too, knowing that like Nigel, she put 110% too into her campaign in Batley % Spen. I know she must be feeling gutted that she failed to topple Labour too, but nobody could have done more or had better supporters.
What now? There is much confusion about what happens next. I regard our success last night as the foundations of a new Conservative future, and we need to somehow get down to the business of running the next government, preferably without the Lib Dems.
I was pleased to see that Dr Death lost his seat on Oxford west and that Sarah Teather won in Brent. I was distressed to see so many voters unable to vote and actually turned away from polling station.
I completely disagree with Peter Hitchens – he claims to have been right all along despite evidence to the contrary, but that’s never stopped him congratulating himself! The results do NOT show that Cameron is unelectable – the Conservatives have the biggest increase for 80 years is it? It is only the electoral system as it is that has returned a hung parliament. The Tories have the majority of votes and seats it is just that our system fails in a three (or more) party system. And it cannot be assumed, as Hitchens clearly is, that if the party were more to his liking, more right-wing, it would have had a better result. The BNP crashed and burned.
My view is that the electorate have turned out to sometime register their disapproval of politics generally but there has been a significant swing to Conservative in that Labour ‘safe’ seats, safe for 18, 20 years, are now returning Conservative wins. Over 2 million people cannot be ignored. But Hitchens chooses to ignore them to flatter his own ego.
It has been an exciting election and there’s more to come!
Pip, I agree with you that this is a terrific success for David Cameron when so many odds were stacked against him. His biggest achievement is keeping his MPs united behind him since he became leader, demonstrating strength and unity. He may make mistakes because he is only human, but it is time to move forward with change, however cliched that sounds.
Ellee the final result is a nightmare , and the thought of now allowing the LDs (whos results clearly show the electorate are not up for major electoral reform otherwise they would have simply have voted in lots more litttle Cleggys ) to play King maker is obscene.He too has no mandate like Labour.
Any pact with the LDs will end in tears so far apart are the two parties on the economy (will he demand that Cameron makes Cable Chancellor , Lord help us !! what would George Osborne do about that assasinate Cameron ) Europe, immigration etc ( or are you going to give in to all the LDs basket case policies ? )
We have a country that should have had the sense to throw Brown so far out he couldnt stay afloat but time after time Cameron failed to put the knife in and remind everyone that our ills are down to Gordon and Co.
What has happened in this country is that we now have such a huge dependency culture whether by being employed by the state or being in receipt of its handouts that its like getting turkeys to vote for Christmas. especially in the inner cities.
Havent read Hitchens as yet today but Im sure I will have to agree with much he will have said.
I give all this nonsense 6 months at the most.
disaffected, let’s wait and see what happens over the weekend. We are certainly in for interesting times.
Fancy losing two former Home Secretaries (no great loss really!)
Just dashing off now to my son’s football presentation.!
Have now read Peter Hitchens blog , and yes I agree with most of what he writes.
Look at the comments, very interesting point from one .
If Cameron joins up with Clegg ( a marriage thought up in hell ) then it wont last.
Brown will have been done away with and Mandy will already be replacing him with little Mr Miliband .
When Cameron is forced to call a very early election it will be Miliband he will face , Miliband will win .
The problem for the Tories is Cameron.
This election should have been the Tories for the taking , mega money poured into the campaign, most of the press on side and a gov who have destroyed everything but the public sector , instead they bottled it.
David Davis mut be secretly saying ” I told you so “
I didn’t know Jacqui Smith was ousted and I think that’s a pity. She’s had to put up with so many stupid, sexist comments that show how very far women still have to go.
Disaffected, I don’t see how you can agree with Hitchens, please enlighten me?
Philipa ,
We had the most unpopular PM in recent history ( even beats Blair and Major ! ) and yet the Tories still dont win , need I say more ?
Thanks, Disaffected but yes, you need say more. The PM was unpopular but that didn’t mean that socialism was unpopular or tribal loyalties forgotton. If you looked at the election map England was mostly blue (with the notable exception of London) and Scotland mostly red. Labour seats fell that had been Labour for 18 years. Hitchens argues that the Tories didn’t win a majority because they weren’t right-wing enough. That cannot be asserted on the evidence because there is none.
If you are saying you are disappointed that the Tories didn’t do better then OK, make that comment but that is not the same as Hitchens argument.
Read Hitchens again Philipa.
He states that to large swathes of the country Conservative Party is still poison .
Correct ,look at Scotland most of Wales and the inner cities.These make up large amounts of seats.
He states that the party is a mass of different values that cannot be accomodated without upsetting each other and therefore for any that are smiled upon by the leadership we will see the others getting equally worked up against ( example the Euro fanatics against the Euro scheptics )
The spin doctors of the party have been claiming ever since he became Leader that Dave was going to win . No he didnt .
Hes got the most seats but in first past the post ( which the party and me both support ) it has to be a majority.
To get that he appears to be willing to do a deal with a group even more removed from him than many of his own backbenchers .There will be war in the shires !
Hitchens thinks that the Tories cannot get that majority on their own for the above reasons .
Still I was interested to hear the political pundits across the board agreeing with my view that we will see another General Election come the Autumn !
Thanks, disaffected, but at the risk of contradiction I think you need to read PH again – I’m quite familiar with his opinions – he says he’s been right all along so perhaps you need to backtrack a bit. Here’s a map: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/2432632/UK-General-Election-2010-political-map.html?utm_source=tmg&utm_medium=TD_electionresultsmap&utm_campaign=news0605
My point was that… take the famous Mrs Duffy – she won’t vote for Gordo as she’s disgusted with him but that doesn’t mean she will vote Tory. She will NEVER vote Tory. And if the Tory party collapses, as Hitchens wants, and a new trad-con party that is for restoring grammar schools, nuclear power, abolishing sex-ed, repealing divorce laws and teaching creationsim in schools as truth etc. etc. etc., that doesn’t mean that that political party will perform better in any election than Camerons. There is no evidence for that. NONE. Do you really think such a party will attract Mrs Duffy’s vote in the Tory box?
I didn’t vote Conservative and am no Cameron fan or apologist, but I cannot help but see that Cameron has done extraordinarily well. The Tories will never win over a nationalist vote in Scotland, NI or Wales, and if the Tories were promoting the Peter Hitchens Party Manifesto it wouldn’t make a scrap of difference. In fact I don’t think the Tories would have done so well – the BNP crashed and burned. Do you agree with Hitchens now and think a changed ‘PH Tory party’ would have done better? Where is your evidence?
Dr David Butler predicts another general election v.soon; 1974 analogy works but an interim government may get unpoplar parcel to pass because of deficit legacy and be unelectable, so whilst Labour’s interim led to a win later (losing to Thatcher in 1979) doing well in this election may be a poisoned chalice. We’ll see.
But Hitchens reasons for the Tories not sweeping the boards in all areas are unfounded.
You may not like the way that Hitchens writes Philipa but did you not read Sir Max Hastings in yesterdays Daily Mail ” The grim truth is the next election atarts now ”
Quote;
The truth is the United Kingdom has never looked less coherent ot homogenous.
The English people want a Tory Gov.
They voted decisively for Camerons MPs .But Scotland, its tribes viscerally anti Tory and its economy held upright only by the crutch of public spending, is implacably alienated.
In many areas of England also Tory candidates were defeated by the huge Labour client vote, employees and dependents of the state who backed the party they thought most likely to keep paying their bills heedless of the damage to the national debt.This is one reason the Tories failed to deal the knockout blow to Labour which might have been expected , with a deeply unpopular Brown and his discredited government ”
Hastings then went on at length over many of the reasons that were given by Hitchens and which you apparently cant stomach
As for your list of things that used to be part of the way things were , grammer schools , the best way ever for bright working class children to achieve motivated as they were by being with their equals instead of being sneered at in some crummy comprehensive inner city ghetto school where the others enjoy taunting their teachers and then taking videos on the mobiles at the results.
Nuclear power , it works which is more than can be said of those stupid wind farms.
Sex education , all that that has achieved is more teen pregnancies , sexually transmitted disease and girls of 12 no longer expected to be innocent .
Easy divorce , its just awful ,look at all the sad and disturbed children its produced .
Creation , well I believe in God and I believe he made the world , so do Muslims, Jews ,Hindus in fact millions of different people but its cool to sneer at us for doing so , how very liberal this society is that does that .
Im old enough to have lived in an England when all the above were taken much more seriously and when having self respect, morals and no desire to bring shame on either oneself or ones family were the unwritten rules of most families , things have changed but I know which kind of society was better to be living in .
So do I, disaffected, and it wasn’t your bigoted, racist, sexist yesterday.
Oh please , give all that lefty clap trap a rest philipa .