Despite the polls, despite the media, and despite the pundits that were already analyzing Great Britain’s political shift leftward, the Conservative Party won a decisive victory in the national elections on Friday. With the Tories winning a definite majority of the seats in Parliament–against all expectations, with no need of a coalition government–David Cameron will stay as Prime Minister. One reason: Scotland, usually a dependable Labour redoubt, voted overwhelmingly for the pro-Independence Scottish National party.
From David Cameron and Conservatives Get Majority in British Election – NYTimes.com:
Prime Minister David Cameron and his Conservatives won a resounding victory in the British general election, with nearly complete results on Friday showing that the party had secured an overall majority in Parliament.
The vote was a stunning disappointment for the opposition Labour Party and its leader, Ed Miliband, who had shifted the party away from the more centrist strategy it pursued in the late 1990s and early 2000s under Tony Blair. Mr. Miliband stepped down on Friday, opening up a new debate over the party’s direction.
The result defied pre-election opinion polls that suggested a tight race between the Conservatives and Labour. It returns Mr. Cameron to 10 Downing Street for a second term, with enough seats in the House of Commons to act on his agenda without having to rely on support from smaller parties.
He went to Buckingham Palace on Friday to be invited by the queen to form a new government.
Labour was nearly wiped out in Scotland by the surging Scottish National Party and did more poorly than pre-election opinion polls had suggested it would in the rest of Britain. Several of Mr. Miliband’s top lieutenants lost their seats.
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