To worry I'm going to get seriously depressed as the night goes on

[Seeingthebeautyineveryminute]

I have a sicky feeling in the pit of my stomach that we are going to be lumbered with 5 more years of Tory rule. Please let it not be so.

I am surprised that 3.7m people voted UKIP! They did well in the North. Be interesting to see how they do in the local council elections.

You can't talk about Blair without remembering Iraq and the stonewalling of public opinion. Whatever else he did, Iraq, proved to be an inescapable and toxic legacy.

It's only in the heads of Labour insiders that Blair is a hated figure.
What?! Really.... he is almost universally hated.

The party clearly needs fresh blood, going back to the past with the likes of Burnham, Cooper, etc. No helpful IMO.

namechange

Depressingly, I agree with every word you say on this thread.

And I'm not necessarily talking about a shift to the left or right.

Blair was arrogant and indulged in foreign wars against public opinion.

I can only speak for myself, but going back to New Labour (you know, minus the illegal wars and stuff) would probably bring me back as a voter.

Same for me. I've never voted Tory before but I was desperate to stop Labour, in its current guise, getting in.

If David Miliband came back and became leader, they would very likely have my vote in the next GE.

Especially now that Balls is out of the equation, too.

badger you are spot on, Blair understood the importance of the economy and of business (and dare I say it the City). He understood it very early on in his career.

The public have voted, we do not want a return to 70s socialism.

I wonder if David Milliband would consider coming back, would have been a very different story with him at the helm I would imagine.

Farage loses...

Bye Nige

Galloway and Farage being rejected have been the only highlights.

At least farage lost.

Although to a particularly right wing Tory

I said it early this morning Farage had lost.

Takes the sting out of the results now. Hate that fucker.

Blair was arrogant and indulged in foreign wars against public opinion.

2003: US invade Iraq with support from UK.

2005: Tony Blair wins 355 seats, a majority of 66.

Very relieved to see Farage is out

The jolly bloke-in-pub face has dropped... humiliated.

So Ed and Nick quit before midday... ho hum

But David M wasnt around. His brother saw to that and has caused Labour to lose again...

They went far too left wing. All that union stuff and Nicola saying she would dominate Labour and its policies. Now that would have been chaos..

Everything that BadgerBank said.

I know loads of people who voted for Labour in 1997. They've all switched to Tory. Labour run the danger of going the same way as the Liberal Democrats unless they can find a way of reconnecting with middle England.

Do people recognise Chucka Umunna? He often appears on Question Time and is amazing eloquent and has real charisma. Is he in the running for Leader??

Whatever happens to UKIP in the future whether they flounder or flourish I intend to fully relish to the hilt, this rejection of Farage.

Sorry, should have added this!

No-one who is dependent on the NHS for health care can possibly claim to be voting for their family's benefit.

Good job we're not dependent on it then! It's about time it was finally privatised.

namechange - exactly.

Blair made a lot of mistakes, some of them huge ones and a couple unforgivable for many, but for the most part he understood what people wanted and he gave it to them.

As someone who runs a small business, employs a few people and aspires to employ, I'd feel pretty safe with a Blairite gov't because I don't feel a party like that would wreak my business just to make a political point. Miliband and Balls would.

I'm not affected by the 45%/50% tax rate but it's symbolic and symptomatic for me - the current Labour party knew full well that going back to 50% wouldn't raise a significant amount of tax. They just wanted to do it to make a point. Ironic that what was meant to be a poison pill left for the 2010 government by the last Labour administration has turned out, for people like me at least, to be an opportunity for the current Labour party to demonstrate why I shouldn't vote for them.