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Hi! My name is Ulrik, and this is my student blog. My posts will be based on tasks and subjects given to the class by my English teacher Ann. I am currently in my third year at Sandvika High School, Norway.

Sunday, May 10, 2015

UK election results

I was originally going to write this post on election day, but suddenly the post was half-finished and time became an issue- so this is instead an after-election post; hope you forgive me Ann!

On Thursday UK held it's breath- who was going to be PM? Would the Conservatives remain in power? could they get rid of the Liberal Democrats? Would Labour once again rule Britain? And the most interesting question if you ask me; how did it work out for UKIP?

On election day I was personally hoping for a new Labour government, since I am not very fond of Cameron. The result however, is as we know a new one-party government under Cameron. His party received 331 seats- against Labour with 232-, which is absolute majority (this means they have no more need for the Liberal Democrats, who won 8 seats). The UKIP received 12% of the votes, but only got one seat- this due to UK's election system which I have written about earlier. The election surprise however is probably the Scottish Nationalist Party; they received 4,7% of UK votes, and won 56 seats. While UKIP received many more votes, they were scattered across the constituencies, the Scottish Nationalist votes were pretty much concentrated in Scotland, securing majority all over the place. Scottish independence might not be so far away as Cameron is hoping, despite the result of last years referendum.

This election was of huge importance not only for UK, but for Europe. On Friday I was at a friends place, and ended up discussing the election with some guys. This one guy was hoping for UKIP ending up with more seats (we did not get along that well), while another guy was hoping for the Green Party to win more seats (they only won one)- a girl who threw herself into the discussion was hoping for Labour to win, even though she was not to fond of their leader Ed Miliband (like many Brits, she believed him not to be radical enough for a Labour PM). My point is that when I can show up at Norwegian gathering, and ending up with a debate on UK politics, you can imagine how it is like in the UK; this election was important on the matter of EU, NATO, environment, immigration, Scottish Independence and lots and lots more. How will UK be like in five new years under Cameron? Only time can tell, but he is a popular man and people do seem to like his politics, so maybe it won't be that bad!