David Cameron’s speech is leaving much to be desired so far.  It’s filled with rhetoric about a strong government, and about the importance of stability in a war, and essentially trying to place himself in Thatcher’s shoes, with constant references to her. The Conservatives have gained more seats than at anyone time since Margaret Thatcher.

Crucially he offers his hand to the Liberal Democrats, promising negotiation on Education policy, and a low carbon economy. It appears proportional representation is also on the cards, though whether we can count an all party inquiry has proper reform remains to be seen. It sounds like it will be just enough of a promise to get through the Queen’s speech and then call another election without giving anything away.

A further critique of the Labour government as leaving the worst inheritance in 60 years leaves Cameron to go out on a powerful note, as their remain only 9 seats to be divided. According to the BBC, the question now is, whether he was talking of a coalition, or a minority government, but with Brown on fighting form after an address at 10 Downing Street earlier, it looks like a coalition will be the only way to halt him seeking a pact with the Liberal Democrats.

Widespread support for Proportional representation is increasingly the message in response to Cameron’s speech. We may well see a Conservative Government pay its ultimate price to form a coalition.

For Clegg’s speech and instant reactions head over to the BBC‘s coverage, otherwise we’ll be updating you at 5.00.

“The BBC projections show the shape of two possible rival power blocs:

LAB: 261
LD: 55
SDLP: 3
ALLIANCE: 1
Possible total: 320
CON: 306
DUP: 8
IND UN: 1
Possible total: 315

Non-aligned:
SNP + PC: 9
GREEN: 1″

From data like this it’s abundantly clear that Plaid Cymru and the SNP will prove the defining force in the rush to form a government, and the question remains, what is their price. The SNP look unlikely to join to the Conservatives due to the Conservatives intention to look into the Barnett Formula that provides Scotland with funding.  Stemming the tide of cuts in their respective constituencies appears to be the price of their vote a quick scan of their website suggests.  The green MP is unlikely to go to the Tories, considering their wishy-washy policy on the Environment which David Cameron preaches, but not everyone believes, which has also taken a back foot in the campaign.

Thoughts?

Just to be clear no results have yet been announced, but latest figures from Sporting Index seem to place the Tories with between 325 and 330 seats, which with support from Northern Ireland would be enough to form a majority government.

5 minutes left and people all over the country are standing in queues waiting to vote. Hurry up I say! The clock’s ticking, and over at the Guardian the Labour propaganda machine is still turning against the Conservatives, hoping to stem the tide. Neil Kinnock is being mentioned, and Margaret Thatcher’s agenda is back on the cards.

The question now is simply, do the exit polls agree with these, and crucially, are they right?
Head on over to the BBC to check out the latest.

1. Three-horse Race

Before the leaders’ debates, most assumed it was a foregone conclusion. Brown would falter, Cameron would triumph and Clegg would provide comic relief. This was not the case. Clegg, addressing the camera directly, appeared to hold common ground with many voters, and days later polls showed the Lib Dems to be second or even first, leaving Labour and the Conservatives trailing. Though he was to fare worse with the other debates, following Cameron essentially adopting his combative debating style, Clegg’s performance proved the Lib Dems could still pose a threat, one viewed seriously enough to warrant plans for a  possible coalition.

2. The Posters

David Cameron’s first election posters provoked ridicule and parody throughout parliament and the internet. At last, thought Labour supporters, Cameron is coming across for what he is; airbrushed, vague and phony. Tony Blair mocked the ‘Vote for Change’ slogan. Posters were defaced. Labour was gaining the upper hand. At least, until they released their own posters, portraying ‘Dave’ as the fictional 1980s detective Gene Hunt, known for his non-PC attitude. Evidently, no-one at Labour HQ realised Hunt’s popularity. Cameron retaliated immediately, expressing his admiration for the comparison, while the Tories rattled off their own version. Labour’s campaign was not working.

3. Bigotgate

The worst was yet to come. Gillian Duffy, a widowed pensioner, confronted the PM over immigration, expressing her concern about uncontrolled Eastern European immigration. While he maintained a calm composure publicly, calling her a ‘good woman’, Brown revealed his true colours when he was heard calling her a ‘bigoted woman’, thanks to a Sky News lapel microphone. The ensuing furore ensured this was the moment the re-election campaign finally collapsed. Brown’s efforts to apologise were futile. Offering to invite Duffy to 10 Downing Street, she responded, saying how she didn’t think he would be there much longer. The scandal revealed to many Labour’s supposed dislike for its own regular voters, along with furthering the immigration debate.

4. The Wives

What better way to see the election than through the leaders’ wives? At least, if you were a newspaper editor. There was never a dull news day with exciting stories about which wife was winning the fashion battle, or the mothering melée. There was Sarah Brown, the Twitter Tsarina, well known for her charity work. Her opposition, Samantha Cameron, or SamCam, was already popular among voters, due to her down-to-earth approach and political ingenuity, engaging with the electorate through her own video logs. After announcing her pregnancy, it seemed there was nothing to stop her becoming the next ‘first lady’. Enter Miriam Clegg. Decidedly withrawn compared to the other two, Mrs Clegg was content with the occasional appearance. Her Spanish nationality struck a chord with the new, Europhile voters attracted to the Lib Dems after the leaders’ debates. Evidently, voting for someone due to their wife is a flimsy reason to vote, but nonetheless these three women were there to show their spouses’ human features, with varying success.

5. The Other Parties

The anti-Europe party UKIP gained the initiative when their outspoken leader, Nigel Farage, quit to challenge the speaker John Bercow’s Buckingham constituency. Though Bercow was gifted with a sizeable majority, the main parties had agreed not to stand agaisnt him, because his position was essentially non-political. Thanks to their absence, and barring any more plane crashes, Farage is likely to beat Bercow, since many conservative voters believe Bercow is closer to Labour than the Tories. Farage’s victory would give UKIP their first-ever MP. Meanwhile, the Green Party leader Caroline Lucas is the favourite to win the Brighton Pavilion seat. Perhaps these small movements show how democracy is not dead, with only a few parties able to gain power, and how, despite the fact it is only one single vote, your vote counts.

We’ll have more later when the results come. Let us know what you think. Leave a comment below.

NEW UPDATE : Latest Predictions say that 12% swing to the Tories would result in an extra 89 seats for the Conservatives, rising to 116 if SNP and LD seats also fall which could result in their share of the vote being anything from 299-326.

The Latest Polls average to 36 % Conservative, 28 % Labour, 27 % Liberal Democrats.  On the current seat predictions the conservatives resulting in 297 seats. But other polls have shown that in Marginal seats there has been a 12% swing to the tories, on the basis of which, an extra 10-15 seats could come his way, not sufficient to allow him to form a majority governments but with the help of Northern Ireland, sufficient to form a government. All hopes of Lib-Lab Coalition would then be ruined, even with the support of Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party.

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If you want to comment on the election go over to UK Polling Report, or to keep abreast of things as they happen tonight visit the BBC, who as always are offering instant feedback on everything as soon as it happens.

Any comments, breaking gaffes or news from the election, post below!

First the media were going wild over ‘Cleggmania’ – the surprising win of the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg in the first ever televised Prime Ministerial Debate. However, now the Lib Dem’s have slipped out of their lead in the polls the thing everyone is now focusing on is the prospect of what everyone is calling a ‘hung parliament’. Judging by the amount of people who have asked me exactly what a hung parliament is over the last few days, I don’t think the public quite understand what one of these would entail…

First, to understand a hung parliament you need to understand First Past The Post, the voting system Britain currently operates under. England, Scotland and Wales are split up into areas called constituencies. There are 650 of these, and each of the main parties (and all the smaller ones as well) put up a candidate in each to run for election. This is how we elect MP’s, and for a candidate to become the MP he or she needs to get one more vote than the candidate that comes in second place. For each MP a party obtains they gain a seat in parliament. This is where all the problems start. For a party to have a majority, aka. being able to form the government and make their leader Prime Minister without any problems they need to have at least 326 (just over 50%) of the seats in parliament. If no party obtains at least 326 of the seats we have what is called a hung parliament. This is a problem because for a government to be able to pass laws they promised to pass in their manifesto they have to win a vote on that issue in parliament. If they do not have more MP’s than all the other parties put together it makes it harder for them to push through legislation. If Labour lose 24 seats or the Conservatives fail to gain 116 more, Britain will be left with a hung parliament.

So what happens in the event of a hung parliament? This is actually where Nick Clegg and the Lib Dem’s rising popularity come in. In the event of a hung parliament, in order for a party to be able to operate without a majority but still be able to form a government some form of coalition or pact needs to be made between the Liberal Democrats and either New Labour or the Tories. Nick Clegg has made it clear he will support the party with the largest mandate (who the public has indicated they want the most) to govern, but he is still not clear if this will be the party with the most votes or the largest number of seats, as this is not always the same party. However, Clegg has made it clear that his price for forming a coalition with his party is a look at, with a view to change the current voting system to a form of Proportional Representation, which is a voting system that would make the number of seats a party holds in parliament more reflective of the amount of votes cast for that party across the country.

Under the current First Past The Post system, as there is not the same number of people living in each constituency, so the party with the largest number of seats is not always the party with the most public votes, something which many people including members of the Liberal Democrats call unfair. Smaller parties would be able to gain more power (including extremist parties, the BNP have representatives in European parliament because those elections use a form of Proportional Representation) and it would be difficult for a party to gain at least 50% of the seats in parliament, forcing more coalition governments or pacts between parties. The Conservatives won’t outright say no to Proportional Representation, but they have made it clear they favour the current system, and as the Lib Dems are insisting on it this could cause a problem if the two parties wish to form a coalition after the election. The Nick Clegg is making the same demands of the Labour party, if they were to receive the largest mandate but a change of Labour leadership from current Prime Minister Gordon Brown would also be most likely be included in the deal. This would probably not cause much of a problem as many in the Labour party already wish to replace Brown as their leader.

In an article in The Times last week Conservative leader David Cameron outlined the consequences of a hung parliament, including the very possible crisis of the pound. Coalition governments are seen as weak as they rarely last, so there is a risk that the international market will lose faith in Britain and its government, and therefore its currency and Britain could face a ‘double dip’ recession, falling back into the economic hardships it is finally recovering from. Another financial issue with a weak coalition is because they rarely last, there is a suggestion of another election before Christmas and elections cost a country a lot of money to hold. A hung parliament can also be seen as undesirable because with the Conservative and Liberal Democrat promises to ‘clean up politics’ in the aftermath of the MP’s expenses scandal, more decisions would be made behind closed doors in the event of a coalition between the parties, warring between their own conflicting ideologies, and this would not be the open and transparent politics that the parties are promising.

Of course, with such a bridging of the gap between Labour and the Liberal Democrats, and a new leader, who is to say that the two parties will not join forces on a grander scale than even the proposed 1997 Lib-Lab Pact? In fact, while for the conservatives proportional representation, and thus only between 27% – 40% of the poll, would be a disaster, for a unified Lib-Lab 38(on lowest polling over the past two years) – 62% (on current polling) victory would be almost guaranteed. A hung parliament is not the only option in this Election, but with Blair gone, is a Lib-Lab pact still possible?

So what can you do if you don’t want a hung parliament? Due to the First Past The Post system the only two parties who have a realistic chance of gaining a majority are Labour and the Conservatives. You must vote for what you believe in. However, if you do want to vote tactically and at whatever cost to avoid a hung parliament, according to the opinion polls over the last few weeks the party with the strongest lead is the Conservative party, but as I have just shown, that lead does not translate into seats, and therefore Labour still have the best chance of forming a government which is not a balanced parliament. But they may seek to introduce a system of proportional voting, and so to avoid that, the Conservatives remain your only option.

By Rachel Phipps

A London Policeman

At 5 foot (1.5m), PC Robin Port stands at a less than daunting height but fear him at your peril.

Having passed his training, the busy copper has already made 17 arrests in his first month, making use of his extensive martial arts training.”

In the past, draconian height restriction laws only allowed those above 5ft 8 to join the force but since the 1990s these have been relaxed.

Standing at 6 foot 5, I personally fear this type of attack, reinforced by PC Port’s statement “I am very confident I can hold my own. I have martial arts training so I don’t see myself as more at risk than any other police officer. I’ve got quite a thick skin which is a requirement in this job. The uniform still carries with it a lot of authority. In a situation where I might be faced with a huge, 7ft bloke, their size also makes them vulnerable as I could sweep their legs out.”

“I have learned that if people want to make an offensive comment towards a police officer they will find something to pick on, be it too short, too tall or having ginger hair or glasses.” However he praised the Devonshire police for taking him on. “I like to think my presence in the force says a lot about the police policy on discrimination, in that a person is recruited on their merit and not to fulfil quotas.”

Crystal Castles are undeniably an outstanding band! It could be argued however that Kap Bambino were the starting point of the entire New Rave mashed, mixed and generally messed up noises genre. So who is the best, CCs or Kap?

Well Castle Crystals have stormed onto the scene, but not only have they produced their own amazing music but have blown people away with their awesome remixes. the White Lies remix was absolutely astounding and they seem to have a knack for making already good songs even more amazing!  Crystal Castles came to the UK  in one big wave, having already broken America and their native Canada.  Their sucess could be down to the amazing job the Canadian government do by subsidising Canadian music, to try and disassociate Bryan Adams from their own music history. They were asked to play on Skins (Channel 4) which opened them up to a vast amount of British teens. they are a must listen!

Crystal Castles – Vanished youtube

White Lies – Death (Crystal Castles remix)

Now Kap Bambino ahve been around for a long time, based in France they have never really been huge and only relatively big new rave fans have come across them. Kap Bambino have a funkier sound which is more childlike and faster. Hugely popular in France they have little sucess elsewhere, but this has not taken away from their music, they still create incredible tunes. One of my favourite tunes by them has to be Hey! an amazing song with a funny video.

Kap Bambino – Hey! youtube

So who is the best? It’s gotta be Crystal Castles although they may have been influenced by Kap Bambino they have surpassed them with ease. Not to say Kap Bambino are bad, like Girls Aloud, but Crystal Castles are just better! Their music is so easy to dance to, and their live presence is incredible. Crystal Castles have maintained a low profile when their private lives are concerned and for that i completely respect them. Let’s just hope that up coming artists can follow their example and sell out for the money.