Are we all HAPPY about the elections in the UK?

[Mackin USA]

, He asked..............

[Gurtie]

heh - we don't do politics here, do we?

So my politically correct answer is that while there are a lot of unhappy people in the country, there are also a lot of happy ones. This is proper and open democracy in process and we should all be celebrating that we live somewhere where this can happen without rioting and (too much) corruption. Democracy never pleases everyone.

I didn't vote for them, and my party would have been considerably better off with PR, but they're in, and actually having a clear winner combined with a really diverse parliament is probably no bad thing for the country - these last few months have seen a lot of people get a lot more passionate about politics, and that can only be a good thing even though some of the issues driving that passion are really... upsetting.

[Brad]

Good answer Gurtie. 

It is good to remind ourselves how rarely free and open elections happen in the world and how few parties or leaders are willing to peacefully surrender power to their rivals.

Somebody buy Cameron a tie, dammit.

[Rooftop]

I'm about as happy as I was going to be with any realistic result.   I voted for the blues, but largely as a tactical vote to keep UKIP out of my back yard. That was painful as the Tories are doing a few things that really hack me off at the moment.    I didn't want Milliband and Balls knackering the economy again either. If you also add in the fact that Balls lost his seat, Milliband has resigned, Farage lost his seat and Cameron has promised not to stand again then it's all looking pretty positive.  The immediate result will also be good for business.

[BoL]

Probably the least messy outcome (EU stuff aside)

[JasonD]

No.

[Mackin USA]

OK, TY 2 ALL

Will Scotland break away?

I hear folks talking about that eventuality.

[rcjordan]

>Scotland

WSJ article says that keeping Scots in the UK and exiting the Euro are the big agenda items for him.

[JasonD]

Scotland won't break the Union. The referendum was clearly won by those that want to remain and at present they'd be slitting their own financial throats if they became independant.

They're much better off within the UK with a strong single party representing them and pushing the Scottish agenda in Parliament. They have that now.

[BoL]

Yeah, it's looking like more autonomy but keeping the best parts of the union, basically almost all Scottish matters would be devolved to Edinburgh while defence, foreign policy and maybe things like pensions would remain UK-wide. 'Full fiscal autonomy' is the buzzword they're using.

An issue is the 'West Lothian question' and allowing only English MP's to vote on Enlgish only matters while still retaining some kind of UK governance (would they do that in Westminster, would they require separate MPs etc). Also, some parts of England away from London may like regional assemblies, seems like there's as much to sort out South of the Border as North of it. Constitutional spaghetti.

[rcjordan]

What say ye about staying with the Euro?

[BoL]

All the major parties want to stay in (me too), but elements of them want some reform, or out. It'll go to a referendum and we'll stay in I think. At least we'll want to pretend leaving is a possibility going to the bargaining table

I think the major points of contention is the Euro convention of human rights & immigration.

[sugarkane]

> What say ye about staying with the Euro?

We'd better not leave. It'd make life very 'interesting' for me, being a UK citizen now living in a different EU country.

[Gurtie]

I'm sure we will have one, but the thing aboout a Euro referendum is no one knows what the pros and cons actually are. I really don't know if its a good or a bad thing being in, and i'm probably more generally interested than most people.

So its nice to have a say, but we could easily say the wrong thing!