2015 UK General Election

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Any thoughts here on the results of the 2015 UK General Election?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32633099

12 seats left to declare, Conservatives have reached 323 seats to form a majority. Will the next five years be like the Major government of the 1990s? Where do Labour and the Liberal Democrats go from here? What strategy will the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) adopt?

[Roger de Coverly]

Any thoughts here on the results of the 2015 UK General Election?

The usual sub topic is a round up of MPs who are or were active chess players or supporters, recording both those elected for the first time and those defeated.

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php ... MPs#p28495

[MartinCarpenter]

Do have to love the results of FPTP.

Look at some of the percentages of the votes vs seats for the smaller parties. Even more outlandish than usual The SNP seemingly managed a byelection squeeze over the whole of Scotland.

The county seems to like it though.

[Mick Norris]

If you want to keep it chess related, then in my constituency Harry Lamb came third

Bolton NE

[Jon Mahony]

Leeds MP Ed Balls lost his seat, huge shocker that one.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

If you want to keep it chess related, then in my constituency Harry Lamb came third

Bolton NE

Aha, I can beat that with a Conservative candidate who came second in Islington South & Finsbury (with a similar number of votes):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/cons ... /E14000764

Mark Lim (or Dr Mark Lim as he was called on the campaign trail) is an active chess player:

http://www.ecfgrading.org.uk/new/player ... 50309B#top

Though less active now than he was in the past.

I wasn't actually aware he was standing in the General Election until tipped off by a fellow member of our 4NCL squad.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Rachel Reeves has kept her seat in Leeds West, Maria Eagle is also returned in Garston and Halewood. and Angela Eagle in Wallasey.

At least womens chess is overrepresented in the Commons! - not the most likely environment, one might have thought.

One senior MP and chess enthusiast, who is now retired from the Commons, is Charles Clarke. He certainly showed more insight than most on this year's election (admittedly, speaking last year):

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... -says.html

[Brian Towers]

Will the next five years be like the Major government of the 1990s?

Almost certainly not. The world has changed beyond recognition in the intervening 20 years. When John Major came to power we were looking forward to an Englishman playing for the world championship . As the saying goes "History doesn't repeat but it often rhymes" We have silver and bronze medals for the senior world championships.

Where do Labour and the Liberal Democrats go from here?

Labour need to get a grip or become an irrelevance. I recently dug up my first score book. One of the games was Towers (~140) v FN Stephenson (~210) and deeply embarrassing it was too. The game finished on move 30 with no result recorded and equal material, so presumably was sent for adjudication but playing through it today the result is beyond doubt. A more pathetic purely defensive display I have never seen on a chess board although the Labour effort is a close match off it. They made no effort whatsoever to win, merely to try and limit their losses and the result was similar to my match from 1973.

As for the LibDems you have to tip your hat and say "Well done" for what they achieved in the last 5 years. To all those who say the idea of taking a risk and going in to coalition to have a say in government is pure folly and they would have been much better off staying in opposition I would just say that kibitzing is a lot of fun but actually sitting down opposite a real opponent and playing is the whole point. If you don't get it don't bother going down to the chess club.

What strategy will the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) adopt?

More to the point what strategy will the tories take with regard to Scotland? Last year the Scots were promised devomax by all three main parties. The honourable thing for the tories would be to negotiate with the SNP with a view to delivering on that promise. Of course that would go hand in hand with EVEL (English votes for English laws). If the tories don't deliver then the SNP should give them hell. If devomax plus EVEL is delivered then the SNP will have minimal impact beyond that.

[Ihor Lewyk]

Jon Arnott a current White Rose player was runner up in the Labour stronghold of Easington.

He is currently an MEP for the North East.

[AustinElliott]

Another Manchester area chess player contesting the election was Fiona Green, currently playing for Chorlton, who was the Tory candidate in the safe Labour seat of Wythenshawe and Sale East. She finished a distant second, but well ahead of Ukip who had been tipped to make a bit of a showing.

Wythenshawe and Sale East

[John McKenna]

Brian Towers, above, can glibly explain away - with the added aid of chessical anecdotes - what has just happened here because a similar thing happened in Israel recently when, according to the polls, a surprising and unexpected right-wing victory was achieved by Netanyahu.

Does Brian think it is a good idea to allow a man like Natalie... sorry, Naftali Bennett any nearer the levers of power when his party propaganda states - our most urgent task is to create a Jewish-Zionist education unit to operate in Israel's public school system?

The most prominent message of the last election and of the government to be formed in its wake is that a "good Israeli" is a straight conservative, right-wing Jew who hates Arabs. All the rest are delusional leftists at best and at worst despicable traitors. [Al-Monitor]

How do you account for what happened where you are, Brian?

Like the voters of Israel, just before them, the voters of this country have chosen division over unity. Scots are now our Palestinians - struggling for their own two-state solution.

Having not used a single chessical allusion the least I can do is draw a geometrical analogy. After this abrupt jolt to the body politic be prepared for an excruciatingly painful five years of Mr Data - who does try hard to understand something entirely beyond his calculating comprehension (what it is to be human) - attempting to square the twin circles of the "United" Kingdom and the European "Union" with the ruler and compasses of his warped party and their broken-promise policies. While himself being increasingly jolted by shocks provided by the latest cast, waiting eargerly in the wings, of the sequel - to the original John Major story - Inglorious Basterds II.

Brian observed, "History doesn't repeat but it often rhymes."

Zebedee said, "Nothing will grow. Not even grass."
Dylan responded, "No grass? Right we've got a problem, man."

I say to you, Brian, Zebedee & Dylan - we're completely off our rockers, on an acid-test trip to who knows where, now. Keep your extremities inside the vehicle at all times!! It's a sad, mad, big bad rollercoaster world of misadventures. Take care.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Correct, Lynton Crosby copied the Netahyahu handbook in getting millions of England/Wales voters to mindlessly hate the Scots.

A sad day

[Mike Truran]

In an attempt to avoid the consequences of Godwin's Law, the pedant resorts to correcting spelling:

Inglourious Basterds

[John McKenna]

Thanks Matt (of Cumbria?) for pointing out the parallel and Mike (of Cameron country?) for ensuring everything is shipshape.

My only consolations are that Commodore Clegg and Ensign Ed doomed themselves to wander the corridors Westminster for at least the next 5 years with their heads tucked neatly undernerneath their arms. And, that Birnam Wood came to Dunsinane as might well have been prophesied when three arch-villains - all ghosts now - Lord Gordo Macbeth, Lady Esther McVey and general factotum Ali 'Darling' Banquo killed sovereignty in Scotland and welfare in Wirral West, dead in its tracks.

I hope Brian does not take much offence and that somehow we can all remain on friendly terms despite the turn of events.

[John McKenna]

Forgot to say how pleased I was that the good people of Bradford finally saw through St. George of Galloway - mendicant monk who became a whirligig dervish.