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And that's your lot, folks. Michael Fallon is remaining as Defence Secretary. It's the non-reshuffle reshuffle. Christopher Hope has been with Nigel Farage since 2am and has not been to bed. He brings us this sleep deprived dispatch:. The former Ukip leader said he was appalled that 3. They're not giving up on Ukip, but absolutely determined that we get a fairer, more reflective system.
John Curtice, who carried out the BBC exit poll, is laughing on both sides of his face:. The synergy between the exit polls and the result is unbelievable. Congratulations to John Curtice GE pic. French media on Friday asked whether the victory of the Conservatives in the British general election meant that Britain had taken a large step towards leaving the European Union.
The conservative daily Le Figaro headlined with: She tells reporters she has "more to do". Osborne stays Chancellor, May stays Home Sec. Ed Miliband has arrived home in north London. Sir John Major played cricket after he lost in Mr Miliband tells waiting reporters he is going to spend the evening with his family.
If you thought the Lib Dems had a bad night, check out what happened with the far-right British National Party. The BNP got 1, votes - drop of Now David Alexrod is blaming the pollsters for Labour's shock defeat. It's the most vocal he's been during the entire election campaign. Huge project ahead to unravel that. If, like me, you need some black humour at this point the tweets of David Axelrod are quite something.
Natalie Bennett i s denying that the Greens - and she in particular - have had a bad campaign. Asked if she will be resigning, she says "Absolutely not". If we had a fair, proportional system we would have 25 seats. She likens their rise to the SNP. She insists she won't quit, despite being widely lampooned for a series of catastrophic interviews, and will complete her two year elected term "at least". Asked about her "unfortunate moments" during GE , Natalie Bennett natalieben says they showed she was "human".
Will he still be Chancellor by the end of the day?
Theresa May - wearing Labour red - has now gone in. A number of bouquets have also been delivered. Tristram Hunt is asked if he fancies running for the Labour leadership. That again is for another day. The libdems are "as relevant now as ever" says SimonHughes , who lost his Bermondsey and Old Southwark seat. In case receiving congratulations from world leaders on the election is a lttle too worldly, David Cameron has also been sent a stream of messages from religious figures. Meanwhile Cardinal Vincent Nichols said: But the paper said it believed that Britain would not in the end pull out of the EU.
David Alexrod has congratulated his fellow American spin guru Jim Messina on his campaign. Bet Ed Miliband is ruing the day he hired him. Congratulations to my friend Messina on his role in the resounding Conservative victory in Britain. How long will it take the party to bounce back? There are some very deep-seated problems that somebody is going to have to sort out.
We were something in the s. Then our remaining seats will go next time round and in two or three elections we are one or none. That is the nightmare scenario.
Obama congratulates Cameron on "his impressive electoral victory". No word if they've spoken by phone. Now it's ComRes's turn to have their say. They've issued a statement claiming to have been the most accurate of the major pollsters - well, it's a pretty low bar. To a point, m'lord, to a point. Damian Lyons Lowe of Survation has written a rather astonishing blogpost, i n which he claims his company had a opinon poll on the eve of the election which indicated a Conservative victory, but which he "chickened" out of publishing because it seemed so "out of step" with the other results.
He says this is something he will always regret. Amid all the speculation about the reshuffle, it's worth remembering that David Cameron made his his first ministerial appointment of the new government during the campaign. Ros Altmann is to become a peer and the minister for consumer protection, with a special focus on protecting the interests of pensioners.
The result in full:. The final declaration of the General Election has now taken place - and it's another win for the Tories and another Lib Dem, in this case Andrew George , out on his ear. The Conservatives have an official majority of 4. How many seats would the parties have received had we had system of Proportional Representation in place as the Lib Dems had campaigned for rather than first-past-the-post.
Martin Baxter has been crunching the numers - and the results are very interesting. He says Ukip would have had 99 MPs, while Labour would have been the biggest party, with seats to for the Conservatives. Round about now, after such an amazing result for the SNP, Nicola Sturgeon must be wishing she stood for the Westminster Parliament, rather than leaving it to Alex Salmond to have all the fun. David Axelrod, Labour's expensive and ultimately utterly ineffectual American import as campaign manager who flew back to the States last week has pronounced:.
The American strategist hired by Labour, David Axelrod, says he is "disappointed" by the election result but "proud" of Ed Miliband. The British Polling Council has launched an independent inquiry into the utter failure of the pollsters to predict the outcome of the election. And so it should. The Leaders are standing side by side at the VE commemoration ceremony at the Cenotaph. It's a strange sight, with two of the three leaders of the main parties no longer in place.
This is the last duty Ed Miliband will perform as Leader. Nick Clegg looks close to tears again, his chin wobbling visibly. David Cameron is avoiding looking triumphalist on this serious occasion. Look at that body language - leaders at the cenotaph pic. France's Nicolas Sarkozy , the former president, has tweeted his congrats to David Cameron - in English.
She says Mr Cameron would not have won without promising a referendum. Il doit maintenant tenir sa promesse! The rest will come on Monday. In the absence of the Lib Dems he has four extra Cabinet posts, and 20 ministerial positions, to fill. David Cameron has been clapped back into Number 10 by the Downing Street staff. Will we see the shape of the new government as soon as today? There is speculation that David Cameron could carry out his reshuffle this afternoon.
Expect a few shocks. Could George Osborne be moving on from the Treasury? Some suggest he would love to go to the Foreign Office, to lead the party safely through the coppy waters of EU treaty negotiation and the referendum which will follow. The number of female MPs looks set to stand at , representing 29 per cent of the Commons. Belinda Phipps, chairman of the Fawcett Society said:. We are really pleased that there has been an increase, albeit a small increase, in women MPs in the House of Commons. We know that when women are part of the legislative and decision making process better decisions are made.
Hill's spokeman Graham Sharpe said the punter was "philosophical" about his loss. Justine Miliband has returned home to the family mansion home in north London. Labour insiders say they were not expecting the scale of last night's wipeout - even after the exit poll suggested things were looking bad they clung to the belief that it was wrong. It was not until supporters on the ground began ringing in to party HQ with the news that their own seats were lost that they realised something was up.
Even as late as 5am there were stil hopes that Ed Balls might remain an MP. I heard that day in, day out for the last six months. I reported it back but it didn't diminish. In the last week it increased. It lost me a lot of votes. They did not see him as a leader. That was the fundamental issue that had people swinging back to the Conservatives. He said that the party needs someone from outside the world of politics to lead the party like Dan Jarvis, a former parachute regiment major who is now an MP. It's about time we didn't have a political insider. Let's not have someone who have been. The obvious one who stands out is Dan Jarvis.
We need somebody who is not a political insider. Labour sources are saying that there will be a new Labour leader in place by the summer, and certainly in time for the party's conference in September.
The contest is being run under a new system of one-member-one-vote, which is replacing the old system of three electoral colleges. There are , Labour members and around 50, "affiliated" members - who are members of trade unions and have opted into being Labour supporters. The party's ruling NEC meets on Tuesday to decide the precise timetable for the election. To stand, candidates must get the nomination of 15 per cent of the parliamentary party - that's around 32 MPs. The internet is so cruel. Going cheap - Ed Miliband's now infamous - and redundant - stone carved with his manifesto pledges has gone on sale on ebay.
All three of the big US newspapers gave Britain's shock election result prominent positions in their morning coverage, and all three zeroed in on the challenges now facing David Cameron in placating Scottish nationalism and making good on his promise of an in-out referendum on Europe, Peter Foster in Washington reports. The paper notes that the unexpected Tory victory had offered "short-term political stability" that buoyed markets, but warned that "potential turmoil looms" because of the promised EU referendum and uncertainty over whether Scottish nationalists will make another push for independence.
The New York Times headlines its site with "Sweeping win for Cameron in Britain" while hammering the erroneous pollsters as the election's "other losers". The paper said the results were a "stunning disappointment" for Ed Miliband and a "disaster" for Nick Clegg. Notwithstanding his success, the paper notes that David Cameron "will start his second term facing immense challenges, not least in holding off calls from Scotland for independence and in managing pressure from inside his own party for Britain to leave the European Union.
Cameron's Conservatives Sweep to Victory is the headline in a down-page story in the Wall Street Journal, that also notes the SNP emergence as a "force in British politics" and frets over the scale of the challenges now facing David Cameron. It was Labour's job to beat the Conservatives in England and Labour hasn't come close to doing that. Even if Labour had won all of the seats that they held in Scotland they still wouldn't have beaten the Conservatives. We had the shadow chancellor losing his seat and Labour failing to take the seats that they had to do.
The scriptwriter for The Audience, the play intended to lift the lid on the Queen's private meetings with her Prime Ministers, has hastily redrafted an up-to-the-minute new scene for tonight's production. Peter Morgan has announced he has updated his script to take in the result of the General Election, with a scene showing the Queen inviting David Cameron to form a new government. The new lines, delivered by Kristen Scott Thomas and Mark Dexter, will be performed for the first time tonight.
This morning I have rewritten the scene in my play between The Queen and David Cameron to reflect the events of last night and this morning. The Commons will be a very different place following the election result. It appears that the SNP will be able to claim two questions at PMQs, while the Lib Dems, with just eight seats, will not get an automatic question and will have to catch the Speaker's eye like everyone else. As well as David Cameron and the SNP, democracy has been the biggest winner of General Election , with the highest turnout since the Labour landslide of Russell Brand has had his say on the election outcome.
He said he thought he could influence the outcome of the election and now realises he can't. He says he got "caught up" in the moment, but seems pretty relaxed about the failure of his man Ed Miliband to get in. He can't even get the for now still Labour Leader's name right. Nick Clegg's resigned, Milibag's resigned, Farage has resigned.
We're a Conservative country. What an extraordinary day this is shaping up to be. We have just seen three party leaders fall within 52 minutes. Nigel Farage resigned at We are seeing history in the making. She says she is "honoured" by the appointment. Grant Shapps is paying tribute to the Liberal Democrats, saying they put the country first when they went into Coalition. He's less forgiving of Ed Miliband: Grant Shapps isn't letting up on Ed Miliband. Ben Riley-Smith has these thoughts on the extraordinary change which has swept through Scotland:. The morning after the night before and the significance of the SNP "tsunami" is beginning to sink in.
Eight months after the Scottish independence question was meant to have been settled "for a generation" the Union has been plunged into fresh crisis. More than half the country has voted for a nationalist party - a result which can only make the nationalist outcome of separation more likely.
SNP MPs this morning are already tweeting that the result proves what they have been arguing for years; that Scotland really is a fundamentally different country to England. Around a month ago The Telegraph revealed a civil service memo - strongly contested by the SNP - which noted Nicola Sturgeon had admitted another Tory government would benefit the cause of Scottish independence most. With the Tories on course for a majority we will get the chance to see if that proves true. But you can already begin to see how Sturgeon will frame the next parliament: Tory cuts imposed from Westminster; Tory leaders with almost no "legitimacy" in Scotland; an UK ailment that can only be cured through independence.
The hope for Unionists must be that the SNP's historic breakthrough in Westminster - they have never had more than 11 MPs; now there are 56 - and increased powers in Holyrood means the party becomes more accountable. One of the many remarkable political successes achieved by the SNP is to have been in power for seven years in Scotland yet retained the allure and poll ratings of a party in opposition. As last night went on it became clear from the broadcasters that almost no Unionist MP understood what was happening in Scotland.
When Cameron gave his victory speech on September 19 last year he said the independence question had been settled. Instead, saving the Union could become the defining battle of his second premiership. Radhika Sanghani brings us news of the demise of "Milifandom". Their sheer belief in him is actually rather touching. Ed Miliband has resigned What's left of the Liberal Democrats? From 56 MPs to nine. Farron is Clegg's most likely successor.
Andrew George's seat, St Ives, is yet to declare. They are also now a men-only party: Together we can make Great Britain greater still. Mr Cameron says Ed Miliband has phoned him to wish him good luck with the new government. He says he believes he can deliver the "good life" for the country, and says a majority government will be more "accountable".
He promises "that" in-out referendum on Britain's membership of the EU. David Cameron has begun to speak. He thanks Nick Clegg and says he's proud to have led the first Coalition government for 70 years. She was quoted saying ahead of the election: David Cameron and his wife, Samantha, have arrived back at Downing Street.
We expect him to address the nation soon. Harriet Harman has issued a statement under her new title of Acting Leader - and announces she is standing down as Deputy Leader. Will she run for the Leadership herself?
I would like to pay tribute to Ed Miliband for his leadership of the Labour Party and to express the gratitude that party members feel for his leadership and for his decency, his commitment and his constant striving for a fairer country. On the resignation of Ed Miliband as Leader of the Labour Party I, as his deputy, am stepping forward to be acting leader until a new leader is elected by the party.
It is not my intention to stay on as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party when the new leader is elected. Therefore, I am announcing that I am stepping down as deputy leader - with my resignation taking effect when the new leader and deputy leader are elected. With a new leadership team in place, after what has undoubtedly been a serious defeat, the Labour Party will be best placed to be the strong opposition this country needs - defending our NHS and our public services, and fighting for fairness, equality and social justice.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tweeted his congratulations to David Cameron , shortly after forming his own coalition government. We don't just need a new person at the top of the Labour party, we need a new argument too. Chuka Umunna has been installed as the bookies' favourite to replace Ed Miliband. He is understood to have begun ringing round supporters With the votes counted, businesses will be relieved that the clouds of uncertainty around the possibility of a hung parliament have dispersed. There will be hurdles to overcome for the new Government though with a slim majority, but it must not duck the tough decisions needed to keep growth striding ahead.
With an EU referendum now likely, business will now want to see an ambitious, achievable reform agenda that will make both the UK and Europe more competitive and prosperous for all. Nicola Sturgeon 's plane has touched down at London's City airport. She had thought she would be here for Coalition negotiations aimed at getting Ed Miliband into Downing Street. Instead she will stand beside Mr Miliband - and Nick Clegg - as leaders of their parties for the last time. The public know that David is an inclusive, modern, compassionate Conservative, and that's why he won.
Steven Swinford reports on Ed Miliband's resignation: Ed Miliband has said "I am truly sorry" for failing to win the election as he urged the party to have an "open and honest debate" about its future. He announced he will resign after the VE Day commemorations this afternoon as he urged Labour supporters to "pick yourself up and continue the fight". I have learned so much from you.
They found that whether to aid immigrants or agents often triggered debates, sometimes within families. That's what I pray to do every day. But we can push our curiosity deep enough to penetrate other worlds with which. We've come back before and this party will come back again. Back to lecturing at a poly? East Dane Designer Men's Fashion. Public opinion surveys carried out, beginning in , have shown that a number of Americans believe that Obama is a Muslim.
It has been an enormous privilege. He added that Labour must "rise to the challenge" of rebuilding the party and keeping the Union together. Your responsibility to pick yourself up and continue the fight. We have come back before and this party will come back again. I will never give up on that idea, I will never give up on that cause, I will never give up in fighting for the Britian I balieve in. That fight will always be my fight. That cause will always be my cause. According to the Los Angeles Times , false rumors saying that Obama was secretly a Muslim started during his campaign for the United States Senate in and had expanded through viral e-mails by The Times compared these rumors to earlier false rumors about presidential candidate John McCain fathering a dark-skinned child out of wedlock.
In December the Hillary Clinton campaign asked a volunteer county coordinator to step down after she forwarded an e-mail message which repeated the false rumor that Obama was Muslim. In , Taha al-Lahibi, a former member of the Iraqi parliament known for promoting fringe conspiracy theories, claimed that Obama was "the son of a Shiite Kenyan father. A chain e-mail circulating during the presidential campaign claimed that Obama took his oath of office as a U. Senator in while placing his hand on a Qur'an rather than a Bible.
This claim is false, as Obama was sworn into office using a Bible that he owned. The claim may have been inspired by a photo-op re-enactment of the swearing-in of U. An early version of a rumor that Obama had "spent at least four years in a so-called madrassa , or Muslim seminary, in Indonesia" [14] appeared in an article published by Insight on the News , a magazine published by News World Communications , an international media conglomerate then owned by the Unification Church.
Insight on the News ceased publication soon after the incident. Its editor, Jeff Kuhner , claimed that a person working for the Clinton campaign had told him that the campaign was "preparing an accusation that her rival Senator Barack Obama had covered up a brief period he had spent in an Islamic religious school in Indonesia when he was six". Senator Clinton denied the allegations. When interviewed by The New York Times , Kuhner did not name the person said to be his reporter's source.
Obama attended two schools during the four years he lived in Indonesia as a child — From the first grade until some time in the third grade he attended the Roman Catholic St. Francis Assisi School, where classes began and ended each day with Christian prayers.
He was registered there as Muslim because of his stepfather's nominal religion. At some point during the third grade he transferred to State Elementary School Menteng 01 , also known as Besuki School, for less than a year. Besuki is a secular public school. Students there wear Western clothing, and the Chicago Tribune described the school as "so progressive that teachers wore miniskirts and all students were encouraged to celebrate Christmas".
Soon after Insight ' s story, CNN reporter John Vause visited State Elementary School Menteng 01 and found that each student received two hours of religious instruction per week in his or her own faith. Hardi Priyono, the deputy headmaster of the school told Vause: We don't focus on religion.
In our daily lives, we try to respect religion, but we don't give preferential treatment. Interviews by Nedra Pickler of the Associated Press found that students of all faiths have been welcome there since before Obama's attendance. Akmad Solichin, the vice-principal of the school, told Pickler: Yes, most of our students are Muslim, but there are Christians as well. One chain e-mail claimed incorrectly that President Obama's middle name is Mohammed or Muhammed.
His actual middle name is Hussein. Public opinion surveys carried out, beginning in , have shown that a number of Americans believe that Obama is a Muslim. Those who were more likely to believe he is a Muslim included political conservatives both Republicans and Democrats , people who had not attended college, people who lived in the Midwest or the South, and people in rural areas.
However, the study also showed that some people who had initially believed Obama to be a Christian later believed the rumor that he is a Muslim. The survey found that respondents who had shifted to the misconception were generally younger, less politically involved, less educated, more conservative, and more likely to believe in Biblical literalism. According to Professor Barry Hollander, "These are groups of people who are generally distrustful of the mainstream media So therefore journalists telling them that this is not true could actually have the opposite effect and make them more likely to believe the rumor.
In , data from the aforementioned Pew Center found that the popularity of the misinformation had increased in some groups. Specifically, over one in seven Americans including one third of conservative Republicans labeled the President a Muslim. Haris Tarin of the Muslim Public Affairs Council remarked that the survey "shows there's a lot of fear-mongering and politicking in America".
I'm a Christian by choice. My family didn't—frankly, they weren't folks who went to church every week. And my mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew, but she didn't raise me in the church. So I came to my Christian faith later in life, and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead—being my brothers' and sisters' keeper , treating others as they would treat me. And I think also understanding that Jesus Christ dying for my sins spoke to the humility we all have to have as human beings, that we're sinful and we're flawed and we make mistakes, and that we achieve salvation through the grace of God.
But what we can do, as flawed as we are, is still see God in other people and do our best to help them find their own grace. That's what I strive to do. That's what I pray to do every day. I think my public service is part of that effort to express my Christian faith. Barack Obama has publicly responded to questions regarding his religion on more than one occasion. During a debate of Democratic presidential candidates on January 15, , in Las Vegas, Nevada, the moderator, Brian Williams , asked Obama about the rumor that he was "trying to hide the fact that he is a Muslim".
Obama responded that "the facts are: I am a Christian. I have been sworn in [to the US Senate] with a Bible. I have been victimized by these lies. Obama gave a similar answer to the one he gave in the January debate. In addition to Obama's personal responses, the Obama presidential campaign responded to the false claims made against him by people opposed to his candidacy by launching a website called " FightTheSmears.
The decision to cancel was received with disappointment by the Sikh community, and it was speculated that the decision was in response to a photo that was circulated during the campaign of Obama wearing Kenyan traditional wardrobe during a trip to Kenya. During the presidential campaign, one chain e-mail accused Barack Obama of secretly being the biblical Antichrist , saying:. According to The Book of Revelations the anti-christ is: The Book of Revelation never mentions the Beast's age, nor does it include any references to "Muslim descent", as the religion of Islam was not founded until hundreds of years after the book was written.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Archived from the original on April 19,