Here are some of my observations on the British elections, in addition to my Washington Examiner pre-election column and my election night Examiner column, plus two blog posts written on the basis of reporting in Cannock Chase in the Midlands and Watford at the edge of metro London and two blog posts written as the returns were coming in on election night after the announcement of the exit poll and after initial returns indicated that the exit poll, unlike the pre-election polls, was substantially right.

1. Historical context

Were the 2015 results far out of line with historic precedent? Not really. In fact, if you look at each party’s percentages of the popular vote, you see that Conservatives and Labour were very close this year to their percentages in 2010. Conservatives have clearly recovered from the trough they found themselves in during the Blair election years (1997, 2001, 2005) but still below the percentages they won in the Thatcher and Major election years (1979, 1983, 1987, 1992).