Hannah Witton

The Election: My Reaction

· My Diary

What a night/morning. I still haven’t slept yet! Even though as a person of the left-wing persuasion I am completely devastated at the result, it was a very eventful election I want to share with you some of my highlights.

Actually voting!
I know it doesn’t take long and going to a polling station to put an X in a box seems really boring but I really love it. My polling station was just a temporary cabin in the road with a porter loo!

Party cocktails!
I went to a party to celebrate 5 years of Bite the Ballot, a charity aiming to get young people engaged in politics. There were political party cocktails!

All-nighter!
After the party, there was an after-party! Of course. We went back to Bite the Ballot’s offices in central London to watch the results come in. We had alcohol, snacks and later in the evening we got pizza! I even brought my pyjama bottoms with me for added comfort!

Exit Poll
This is where it started to go down hill. All the opinion polls said it was too close to call between Labour and Conservatives but the exit poll told a different story… At first we were shocked and confused but then the fear set in.

Paddy Ashdown’s Hat
When the exit poll was announced the ex-leader of the Liberal Democrats, Paddy Ashdown, said on the BBC, “if this exit poll is right I will publicly eat my hat”. The the internet did what the internet does best and this happened:

When it was clear that the exit poll was right Ashdown was given a hat but he refused to eat it. Shame.

Jazza sleeping
Political enthusiast and Bite the Ballot employee, Jazza John, found the whole thing so exciting he had to take a nap… THROUGH THE WHOLE THING!

Seeing the BBC Election Map
Seeing TV things IRL is always exciting. The election map looked really cool and we were a 15 minute walk away so at 5:30am Rosianna and I decided to head over and check it out. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed anywhere near it but it was still cool.

Scottish turnout
The average turnout in Scotland was 71.1% which was much higher than the UK average and it was above 80% in two constituencies. This is amazing and makes me extremely excited. Scotland are engaged. Agree or disagree with the outcome and the politics of the SNP but look how much Scottish people care! They’ve shown that if you turnout you can dramatically change the outcome of an election. The SNP have 56 seats in Parliament, that’s 50 more than they had in 2010!

Caroline Lucas winning
The only Green MP kept her seat! Go Brighton! By the time this result was announced a Tory majority was pretty certain, I was home in my onesie and I was an emotional wreck.

Nigel Farage losing
Again, despite a Tory majority being clear at this point I was extremely happy to hear that Nigel Farage, leader of UKIP (although not anymore) did not win a seat.

Ed Miliband thanking the ‘Milifandom’ in his speech
The result of this election was a complete shock and the poor results for Labour and the Lib Dems saw the resignation of Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg as their respective party leaders. Nigel Farage also resigned from UKIP leadership. Three party leaders in one afternoon!? Crazy! Anyway, internet culture won once again when Ed said this in his speech.

Women in politics
And despite the devastating result we have seen some progression. More women in Parliament than ever! Granted it’s still only 30% but it’s an improvement from 2010’s 23%. I like to think that this has something do with having three female party leaders on the national televised debates and absolutely killing it. More women in politics please! 50/50!

Screen Shot 2015-05-08 at 15.00.40

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32601280

And that’s it! Let me know in the comments what your election highlights are. Did you stay up all night? Are you not from the UK and have no idea what’s going on? Are you happy with the result or devastated like me? Here’s to the next 5 years! Just because the election is over doesn’t mean we stop fighting for what we believe in!

Comments

  1. I am so pleased that more people (myself included) are becoming more engaged in politics. I still find a lot of it difficult to understand but we’re definitely headed in the right direction in terms of engagement. Absolutely delighted that UKIP only had 1 seat! Also thrilled about the SNP results; I am Scottish and this is such an exciting time for us!! It’s also so encouraging to finally see more women leaders and politicians AT LAST 🙂 Despite the Tories still having the majority, it’s been an exciting time for politics and the UK. 🙂

    Reply

  2. It’s been interesting to watch from Australia, particularly how similar the press attacks on Ed Miliband were to what our Labor received at our last election. We also had similar results so I call me a conspiracy nut but I can’t help but think there’s some kind of billionaire corporate cabal manipulating the western world. Best wishes from Australia, we would have you all here but it’s just as bad. Sigh.

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  3. I’m completely gutted that the Conservatives won, it hurts badly. But I am so happy the the SNP gained a whole load of seats and that Farage is gone! I love that their are so many female MPs but the one for our constituency, Nadine Dorries of I’m a Celebrity fame, is so against same sex marriage and is basically promoting rape culture (through sex education lessons preaching abstinance to girls and nothing of the sort to boys) it is kind of bitter sweet. I only hope that in 5 years time when I am able to vote she will be gone for good.

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    • Also stuck with Nadine Dorries as MP, I share your pain, knew we were going to stay Tory but it still hurt

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      • We gotta stick together ? fortunately my school enjoys taking a stand against her and she now refuses to talk to the students (which is not a good thing, but it shows we got to her)

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  5. I was in two places this morning when I turned on the news. So happy that SNP got 56 of the possible 59 seats. Congrats to Paul Monaghan new SNP MP for my constituency.
    I thought it was inevitable That conservatives would win because of Labours loss of seats in Scotland, but at least Scotland will have a louder voice in Westminster and that is what is most important for me.

    Reply

  7. I was gutted at the results. I was a week off of turning 18 and being able to vote at the time of the election which made it even worse, but I felt very deflated the next morning. I am hoping that Labour will be able to pull some of their support back before 2020 so they can beat the tories out. I’m also kind of hoping that there is a huge scandal surrounding the tories to make them less popular and I hope Jeremy Corbin is able to put the Labour party back on track. Hopefully he will be able to encourage more young people and those who have never voted before to vote in 2020.

    Reply

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