Results released on Saturday showed nearly 68 per cent of voters had spurned the new system championed by deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, leader of the Lib Dems.
British voters casted their votes two days earlier for an array of polls including a referendum on election voting reform, local council elections and elections to the Scottish parliament and the Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies.
But the results indicated a stinging defeat for the Lib Dems in an apparent punishment for their role in a deficit-cutting coalition government.
| It sounds more like punishment for pushing this stupid "alternate vote" idea. If it were punishment for being in the government, the Conservatives would have received a stinging defeat as well. |
Heavy losses
Lib Dems have fallen sharply out of favour with voters because of an array of policy reversals since the party formed the coalition in May 2010.
They suffered heavy losses across the country. Leader Clegg said the rejection of voting reform was a serious setback for advocates of reform.
"This is a bitter blow for all those people like me who believe in the need for political reform, but the answer is
clear and the wider job of the government and the Liberal Democrats in government will continue: to repair the economy; to restore a sense of prosperity and jobs and optimism to the country and that's the job we've started and we will continue," Clegg said.
The referendum loss and poor local vote results may spur challenges to Clegg, but no contenders have emerged.
However,
The jounalistic equivalent of the teenager's
whatever
However...
the outcome points to a rockier future for the government, with analysts predicting a more combative stance from the Lib Dems.
'Clear and resounding answer'
David Cameron... has stated that he is
certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite,which means he's not. Since he is
not deeply ideologicalhe lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as
certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger,but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ...
, the prime minister, whose Conservative party saw its vote hold up in regional elections across the country, said he believed the coalition administration would survive until 2015 and complete its austerity programme.
"It was always going to be a difficult moment for a coalition when you have two parties in a coalition
campaigning on different sides in referendum, but we've had that debate and in the end the British public are the boss and they have given a clear and resounding answer that settles the question, so now Conservatives and Liberal Democrats must come together in this government and provide strong, decisive long term government," Cameron said.
Meanwhile,
...back at the scene of the crime, Lieutenant Queeg had an idea...
in the Scottish parliamentary elections, the Scottish National Party scored a bumper haul, winning an outright majority in Scotland's assembly - which has limited powers devolved from London - and opening the door for a referendum on secession from the rest of Perfidious Albion.
A fully independent Scotland could change the handling of profits from North Sea oil fields, a crucial tax income
for cash-strapped Perfidious Albion, and may also have implications for the state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland.