BRIEFLY PLEASE - who won?

[colditz]

I don't really understand the whys and wherefores and don't really want to know, I'd just like to know who the prime minister is now, please!

Gordon, until he hands his resignation to the Queen.

Did labour win then?

oooh thanks saves me turning the tv on today

No-one. Hung Parliament. Gordon gets the first chance to attempt to form a government so for the time being he is still the PM.

Nobody 'won'. The cons have the largest share, but they don't have over 326 seats, so they haven't won. GB is PM until the mess is sorted out. Some of the parties will need to band together and form a government of 326+ seats in order to decide who the PM will be. Obviously the libdems as the biggest minority are very important here - it swings on who they decide to band with. Looks like it might be Tory.

Cameron is the winner. It will just be a while before his coronation.

Gordon has the first chance to woo Cleggy. Although if Tories woo Cleggy they get their government.

So Gordon is still PM at the mo until Cleggy decides who he likes best.

No one knows yet who is PM. Labour didn't win, but neither did Conservatives really, although they have most votes and seats. They don't have enough to form a majority (they need 326 seats and they have 291 at the moment). Labour and Lib Dems together wouldn't have enough for a majority either, even if they join together. In order for Conservatives to be in power, they have to show they can form a stable, reliable government. Until they can do that, Gordon is still Prime Minister. It's his responsibility to stay in power until it's proved that a stable government can be formed, either by Labour forming a coalition with other parties or by Conservatives proving they can form a government. Newspapers are saying at the moment that it looks as if Cameron will be PM, but the most likely outcome is another election either later this year or early next. We won't really know until later in the day, or even a few days time, who will be the next PM - until then it is still Gordon.

No-one won hung parliament but your question was "who is the prime minister now". That would be Gordon.

But the Conservatives definitively won the most seats, though well short of a majority.

Personally I'm really hoping for a Con-Lab coalition, with electoral reform on the agenda (and pigs might etc.) -- definitely preferable to being held to ransom by the Ulster Unionists, the Conservatives' partners of choice.

sorry -- that was meant to be Con-LIB!!!!

Con-Lab would be

At the end of the day it's a victory for democracy.

ooj is it ? i don't see hung parliam't as a good thing. you do ?

straight face

Cameron is not the winner - they may have the most seats but no-one had yet passed the finish line. Like it or not, this is the system that we have.

There is no new winner yet, GB still PM, it's a case of who can get the numbers together to get past the finish line.