I couldn't see any thread related to UK elections either here or in any Facebook group. Well, I'm interested in these elections but don't have much knowledge. I want other senior members to start discussion on this topic like comparison of both major parties, their history, political ideology, support, chances of winning etc.

You are a very rare person in this country. But I like this thing in you since you want to learn about one of the world's best democracy. Their democratic culture is truly worth studying and I wish we could become like that some day.

Basically the conservatives were in power since 2010. They are considered to be right leaning and pro-rich people. They want to privatise the National Health Service which is highly controversial as people in the UK have this great healthcare system. They are also pro-austerity which has not helped in stimulating the economy and put pressure on people's living standards. They increased tuition fees for university students enormously which didn't go well with the students (Uni students don't pay fees while at university, the government pays it to the universities for them but after graduation, students have to pay it back while working in terms of a minor cutting in their salary automatically). David Cameron, the conservative leader promised to hold a referendum on relations with the EU since there is heavy immigration from backwards EU countries and the UK is burdened.

The Labour Party headed by Ed Miliband is left-leaning and a party that talks for the working class people. They want to raise the minimum wage, do away with bedroom tax, bring down tuition fee for university education, probably stay in the EU and keep the NHS as a welfare system (It was Labour that made the NHS). They are soft on Immigration. Labour has been in power most of the time in UK's history and they supported the independence of the Indian Sub-Continent as well. I must also mention that PM Winston Churchill was a conservative.

Then you have the UKIP, very nationalistic and anti-immigration party. They are right wing and have some radical views but gaining considerable support recently. However, the british people have firm liberal values so I don't think they will ever come into power.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) is mainly based in Scotland and they are Pro-Independence for Scotland. There are speculations that Labour and SNP might make a coalition but the Labour leader has ruled that out.

There are some other small parties like the Liberal Democrats, Green Party, Respect etc but they are not very influential apart from Liberal Democrats who were in a coalition with the Conservatives recently, they are centrists.

Recent non-official polls suggested that Conservatives were at 33 points, whereas Labour at 34 points, UKIP at 14 points and Green Party at 5 points I think. I am not sure about SNP's points .

Personally, I have a feeling that Labour is going to get a good number of seats and might have to form a coalition government with another party. The working class people are having a hard time in the current economic climate and young people are also supporting Labour heavily.

Here are the party manifestos if you want to read them:

Labour
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...sto-key-points

Conservatives
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...the-key-points

Green Party
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...the-key-points

Generally
http://www.theguardian.com/politics
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2015

I wish our country evolves with a similar democratic system. Our people and political parties should learn from the UK. They don't have rigging, no fighting, all debate and performance based elections.

Thanks for writing an elaborate answer. Yes, I believe we must learn from them but I couldn't see any discussion on TV or FB or even CSS forums regarding this topic (Maybe there was and I missed).
Well, I had opportunity to talk to few British People regarding this topic (through Facebook). Most of your points are same as those people told. However, I'd like to add that many people believe that Tories made great economic development in the country and their immigration policy is brilliant as UK was overburdened in last Labour government. I am not sure about development but I personally believe that immigration practices and standards at that time were below average as I have seen various UKBA videos. Those unable to speak or write Matric level English were given visas and the number of bogus colleges was in hundreds.
On the other hand, a great number of Desi people support Labour due to immigration policies and increased benefits. Other things include like decrease in fees etc.
One of the person I talked to mentioned one important point. He said, conservatives saved UK from division (Scottish referendum )

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Somewhere Beyond Right and Wrong, There is a Garden. I'll meet you there :Rumi

Well Its conservative again, I think exit polls showed 326 seats for conservatives yesterday and up till now they have won 328 (with 3 results remaining).
Another important thing regarding labour that they used to win good deal of seats in Scotland, as told my a friend in Britain. but this time SNP has won 56/59 seats. This is one major factor of Labour's defeat

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Somewhere Beyond Right and Wrong, There is a Garden. I'll meet you there :Rumi

Yes you are right to a great extent, however, I don't think they improved the real economy much. The rich are getting richer and poor getting poorer there. There are hundreds of thousands of people taking food from charity shops and salaries are very low, much lower than in US/Aus/EU etc. Inflation, even though in official figures is less but actually is a lot. Yes, the tories are very strict on immigration and toughened the rules quite a bit apart from the EU as many Polish, Bulgarians etc came to UK and took benefits/citizenships/jobs on low wages. The tories also finished the Post Study Work Visa scheme which was very popular amongst international students, now such students are not heading for UK in great numbers apart from Chinese students who really don't care about the PSW Visas. There is a saying that Labour supports immigration so that their constituency grows as many immigrants support Labour. But now David Cameron will re-negotiate their agreement with EU and put it to a referendum in the UK. If the UK decides to quit the EU, then they might loose Scotland that wants to stay in the EU and they might also loose their financial market share (which is HUGE in the whole world as there are many big financial institutions and banks etc in London). UK's main trading/economic partners are in the EU and I don't know but they might have to make trade agreements and barriers in trade might arise. The conservatives saved Scotland from seceding but the matter has not been solved yet as the SNP has replaced Labour in Scotland and SNP is a nationalistic party with 56/59 seats in Scotland. Scotland might break free in the future if London does not listen to them or quits the EU.

Yeah, they got a clear majority. Yes, Labour has been defeated in Scotland and replaced by SNP. Many young English people are shocked and upset at Labour's defeat, they voted for Labour but the result was surprising. 5 more years of conservatives might damage the UK a lot.

Good piece of writing. But brother you have not mentioned the Muslim in this whole scenario.According to a report Mulsims had capability to change the election result. Would you tell that the followers of the second greatest religion in UK- MUSLIMS- were supporting which party?? I think labor party. If so, then what are the pro-Muslims policies that labor party has that muslims were supporting it?

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SHAH

KingFalcon might be have some better information,but according to my research, it was more of an immigration issue than Muslims. Most desi people (Muslim, Indian etc.) were supporting Labour because they are lenient towards immigrants and aim to offer better benefits plan as well as better incentives to lower middle and middle class (most of Muslims, Indians etc belong to these classes). Another issue could be of Ch Sarwar, since most British Pakistanis support PTI and ch sarwar (PTI leder) campaigned for Labour. But I don't think it was a major factor since Sarwar's son Anas himself lost in Scotland.
I don't think that Muslims can affect election results in a considerable way apart from few areas, such as Bradford etc. One example in George Galloway constituency, where Naz Shah won because of Muslim majority vote.

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Somewhere Beyond Right and Wrong, There is a Garden. I'll meet you there :Rumi

Agreed with husseych. I must also point out that the Church and the State are completely separate in UK. Religion does not play a role in people's voting, it is limited to private life only. Mostly it is the policies and manifesto that gets the votes. In general Muslims support Labour because they are immigrants and working class people.

Yes, there are about 10 MPs of Pakistani Origin. But we should not be too excited about this as they consider themselves British and don't have much interest in Pakistan apart from the fact that their parents/grandparents came from there, so they don't have much emotional attachment apart from a similar culture and language that was exported there.

Yeah...They actually divorced your state because state failed to protect their rights or exploit their capabilities. So, they are British nationals now not "Pakistani" people..And some people take it as Islam has conquered Britain...They are "Celebrities" for Pakistanis now. And those who are serving the nations and giving every thing to it are actually never praised and sometimes hailed as traitors as well...

In Mature democratic states like British the manifestos matter a lot rather then the personalities and what least matters is their religion. They select popular people in the communities, something very different from our system where sometimes we listen the name of that person during 2-3 days of election and then they disappear for 5 years.
It's an election of policies actually.

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If I am what I have and if I lose what I have, who then am I?