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www.celtic-connection.com
MAY 2010
GILLIAN DUFFY meets Gordon Brown in the street - inadvertently sparking Labour's biggest crisis of the election.
Gillian Duffy says she won't vote for anyone
LONDON - The lifelong Labour supporter branded a "bigot" by Gordon Brown has said that she would not be voting for any party.
Gillian Duffy said she had accepted the prime minister's apology after his unguarded remark sparked a political storm during a visit to Rochdale.
However, the pensioner said she had snubbed his invitation to shake hands in front of the cameras.
Brown's gaffe - in which he described his encounter with Duffy as a "disaster" - was captured on a microphone he had failed to remove during a conversation with aides.
Duffy, 65, said, "He wanted me to go outside with him and shake his hands for the camera but I said no. I didn't want that fuss."
Speaking out for the first time since Brown's apology, Duffy said she had been "shocked" by the episode, but felt more sad than angry about what happened.
Recalling her first encounter with the PM, she added, "He was smiling when he spoke to me but he was thinking that. What else is he thinking when he smiles?"
When Brown came to her house, Duffy said she told him, "I'm sorry for you, Gordon, because you have more to lose than me. I'm very sorry that this has happened but it's you who's going to lose out, not me."
Duffy described how she had been more taken aback by being called "that woman" than she was at Brown's "bigot" remark.
She said, "It wasn't the bigot, it was that he said 'that woman'. I thought, 'what does he mean, that woman?'... It's not nice, it's not nice at all."
Writing in a Sunday newspaper, Brown's wife Sarah said he would "forever regret" his comments about Duffy.
She said, "I wasn't with Gordon at the time, but I could tell from the tone of his voice when he called me that he'd done something he felt mortified about. He simply hates upsetting people."
Brown said, "I hope I've made things up with (Duffy). I made a mistake. I apologised.
"It was right to go to see her and I feel a misunderstanding was corrected. She seemed willing to accept that. I hope that's so."
'Unionists help Adams to victory'
BELFAST - Unionists helped Gerry Adams to his landslide victory in West Belfast, the Sinn Fein leader has claimed.
He was returned with a thumping majority which represented a 71 percent share of the vote in a constituency which has been more or less his since his first victory back in 1983.
The SDLP's Joe Hendron held the seat for a time, when it was claimed by republicans that Shankill Road loyalists had given him their support to send him to Westminster.
Adams, 61, said a small but significant stream of unionists had backed him, and made no secret of it.
He claimed, "Its not so much they voted for Sinn Fein, but they told us so because Sinn Fein had done more for them than
the unionist parties. I don't want to exaggerate this. It is small, but it is significant. It most comes from a section of working class people."
The Sinn Fein president, who has been under pressure over allegations that he was linked to the murder of Jean McConville and whose brother Liam is resisting demands to return to Northern Ireland to face sex abuse claims, said a lot of people understood he had to deal with difficult issues.
He added, "This election campaign has been very good to me in terms of being a human being.
"Even if I never got one vote, but to be out there meeting people - some complete strangers - and being totally sympathetic to my family situation. I feel humbled by that."
Frustrated UK voters turned away from polls
LONDON - The electoral watchdog has launched an investigation after hundreds of voters were turned away from busy polling stations, raising the prospect of possible legal challenges to some results.
Britain's most unpredictable election in decades had been expected to bring out unusually high numbers of voters and some regions reported a late rush at the polls.
About 200 people were turned away from a polling station in Sheffield when polls closed at 10 PM on May 6 because election officials were unable to handle the paperwork in time.
Police were called to several polling stations across London and an undisclosed number of people were turned away in part of Manchester.
"It is a cause for serious concern that many people who wanted to vote today were unable to do so by 2200 BST when polls closed," the Electoral Commission said.
"There should have been sufficient resources allocated to ensure that everyone who wished to vote was able to do so."
Labour Party deputy leader Harriet Harman told the BBC some results could be open to legal challenges if the count is close.
Business Secretary Peter Mandelson said the larger turnout should have been anticipated, given the public interest the campaign has generated.
"That's not good enough," he told IT V News. "What they should have done is not sealed the boxes, but sealed the doors."
There were reports of queues, voters failing to cast their ballot and confrontations with officials across the country.
One of the worst affected areas was the electoral district of Sheffield Hallam, the area represented in parliament by Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats.
PostmanRobinDallman,25, saidhehad arrived at 9:30 PM before the 10 PM deadline, but had failed to reach the door of the station, in a church near Clegg's home.
"People want to vote, so when people aren't allowed to vote obviously they aren't going to be very happy," he said.
John Mothersole, returning officer for Sheffield, apologised to voters who were turned away and said "we got this wrong."
In London, police said they were called to a protest at a polling station in Hackney.
About 50 voters who were unable to vote refused to leave the building, a London police spokesman said. They agreed to go after the police arrived and there were no arrests.
Polls were kept open for an extra 30 minutes in Lewisham, southeast London, to cope with "large queues" still waiting to vote when the ballot boxes were due to close. There were also queues in Islington, north London.
InNewcastle, about 450 people queuing outside two polling stations were taken inside and allowed to vote after the deadline passed, a city council spokesman said.
CONSERVATIVE party leader David Cameron arrives to read a statement to the media at St. Stephen's Club in London on May 7.
UK General Election:
Hung parliament sparks market chaos
LONDON - The pound plunged up to 4Vi cents against the dollar during a roller coaster 24 hours of trading as the prospect of coalition government prompted investors to ditch UK assets.
The inconclusive UK General Election result on May 6 unnerved investors already spooked by Greece's deepening debt crisis and a global rout of equity markets.
Gilt yields see-sawed, with investors at one point demanding an extra 1.25 percentage points to hold 10 year gilts rather than German Bunds - the biggest spread since 1998.
Shares also fell, with the benchmark FTSE100 dropping 2.6 percent, capping its worst week for 14 months.
Michael Saunders, chief European economist at Citigroup, said Britons should brace for a potential "meltdown" if there is no deal for stable government soon.
"Right now there is a firestorm of a sovereign credit crisis sweeping global markets," he said.
"If markets do not get some sense on Monday that there is a solid government with a credible route back to fiscal stability, things could get very ugly indeed. A coalition of Labour, Lib Dems and nationalist parties could well precipitate a market meltdown."
The best outcome so far as investors were concerned would be a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition with an outline plan to cut the deficit, he said.
"The clock is ticking in the markets; today we saw the UK go from being a safe haven from the Greek crisis to one of those markets suffering on the periphery," he added.
Peter Spencer, chief economic adviser to the Ernst & Young Item Club, said, "What is needed on Sunday or Monday is a statement that says we believe we can cut the deficit together, and we will stake our reputations on it.
"Otherwise the markets will push for it: they will bang heads together on Monday and Tuesday."
The pound initially rose in the early hours of Friday morning, touching a high of $1.4935, as early results suggested that the Conservatives would win enough seats to secure a working majority.
NICK CLEGG leader of the Liberal Democrats who is now negotiating to form an alliance with either Labour or Tories.
But as it transpired that a majority was a mathematical impossibility, it plunged, briefly touching a low of $ 1.4478, amid reports that Gordon Brown might attempt to form a coalition government.
In London, the pound closed at $ 1.4682, down from $1.4972 at the end of play on May 6, but regained a further cent as trading swung to New York.
"Sterling is as clear a barometer as you can get about the need for a government with a clear mandate" said Simon Derrick, strategist at Bank of New York Mellon.
The sell-off was broad-based, with all UK assets affected. The domestic-focused FTSE 250 was worst-hit, closing down 410.85 points - or 4.15 percent-at 9491.89.
The FTSE 100 also fell - down as much as four percent at one point, although it recovered slightly to close down 137.97 points at 5,123.02.
The index has lost seven percent of its value over the last week.
Bank shares were among the worst performers, with Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group lower due to fears that the Liberal Democrats would push for the banks to be broken up as part of a coalition deal with the Conservatives. RBS dropped five percent and Barclays almost six percent.
Dr. Tim Morgan, global head of research at Tullett Prebon, drew comparisons with the hung parliament of 1974 and the IMF bail out of 1976 that followed.
"Then, as now, Britain was living far beyond its fiscal means; then, as now, the global (and local) economic outlook was precarious; and then, as now, the British electoral process inflicted indecision at the very moment when decisive action was imperative."