UK Elections

[Kitdy]

So I have BBC World on, and the seats sit at 270 Conservative, 217 Labour, 44 Liberal Democrat, and 27 other as I type.

What are your guys thoughts?

[W.R.]

I'm completely surprised with the Lib Dems, they semed to have mountains of support all through the campaign. Labour's drop and Conservative rise is nice and expected though.

[jediali]

No clear majority. 10% counting to go. Scotland is full of Lib Dems though.

[Matra et Alpine]

Friend is a Lib Dem activist and he thought that too :(
In true Scottish historical social conscience background, the Labour vote has held.
THere are areas of Scotland where a monkey with a red rosette woudl get voted in ... even GWB could if he said "labour", no need for Geb :)

Interesting times ahead and sadly the real risk of the collapse of the British economy if we lose the strong experienced hand. So much of pre-election was bravado one what COULD be done. Watch for lots of giveaways by Cameron to get Irish politicians to support him and even the one Green MP is going to be asked to wield power.

Will Conservatives finally give in an accept that Proportional Representation is a GIVEN ?
It's the one area where Labour have always given a little support but shied away at the logistics of converting UK to another voting system. A given with Clegg - or so he once said, wonder if the whiff of power will throw all his ethics and standards out.

Even more intriguing, I'd love to hear the phone call with Cameron and Salmond as he tries to get the SNP to back a Tory government. Too many "experiments" in Scotland by Thatcher stuck in long long memories in the political corridors up here :)

However all the political statements and maneouvring right now does NOT bode well for the UK political system ability to ever cope with PR. Cameron et al keep CLAIMING that THEY ahve the right and yet the British constitutional right lies with the incumbet government to try to build concsenus in facing no clear majority. THOSE are the "rules" and Tories trying to rough-shod them. Not good for when Clegg asks for PR later on or Greens ask for higher tax to fund initiatives or Irish/SNP ask for more devolved powers. If Cameron thinks we can ignore CURRENT standards then what hoep for future ones ?

Sadly Cameron is the Conservative TOny Blair (imho). All look and willing to do ANYTHING to be on the winning side :(

[IBrake4Rainbows]

Thats going to be same with any politician who can claim they have the numbers.

We had a little bit of a similar situation in terms of a Hung parliament on another little insignificant island recently - the Tasmanian General election cast a 10 - 10 - 5 split parliament, with the opposition Liberal party (not quite what it means for you guys) winning more of the primary (popular) vote, but the same amount of seats as the incumbent Labor government.

After a week or so of jostling around (including a reneg by the incumbent saying "the party with the most primary votes should try to form a minority") the Green party - the holder of the 5 vote swing, sided with the incumbent government, and formed a tentative coalition.

How is this relevant? well, the Labor government were very sure they wouldn't survive this election intact, and the Liberal opposition got so cocky they got to a point where they tried to go it alone, thinking the votes were enough. if Clegg can get his crap together he can make life VERY Hard for Cameron or Brown to do anything, and while I agree the political jostling that is required for this sort of herranging to occur is poorly timed considering the bigger UK picture, a fresh outlook can sometimes help a situation.

In all honesty the best thing for a British economy is stability and I suppose that would mean keeping things as they are while measures are put in place to ensure the survival of the UK economy.

As a side I'm AMAZED by the antiquity of the UK electoral system, especially considering the offshoot countries (particularly Canada and Australia) are well advanced in terms of Preferences, etc.

[Commodore GS/E]

I'm not the biggest genius when it comes to british politics...but i read that none of the parties has a clear majority. The Conservative have a clear lead, but it's not enough for an absolute majority (which should mean that they would need a coalition partner to win).
If there is no other way than forming a coalition, i hope it won't be as bad as our last ones over here in Germany (oh yes, they were absolutely horrible:().

[IBrake4Rainbows]

Coalitions aren't all bad - we had a Liberal/National (country party, basically) coalition run Australia relatively effectively for 10 years or so.

Regardless of what you thought of the policies, there was very opposition at the time.

[Matra et Alpine]

Because teh "first past the post" system ensures power for the major parties then once IN power they lose all desire to change the system.

Also, it does tend to produce VERY strong governments who punch above their weight in the world because there is no negotiating and in fact very little debate for a government with a large majority -- thus why Blair managed to take Britain into a war that NOBODY wanted, that all the facts said were a bad idea, but in debates the "party whips" tell the perty memeers what to vote. If they dont' follow the party line then they lose privelages. Until these whips became so powerful it wans't such a bad system. But now it is as corrupt as any right wing junta anywhere on the planet :(

THis time around there is all ikelihood of two major changes.
First one -- LONG overdue - is the right for any politician to be withdrawn by his constituency if enough people raise the action and then vote on it. So finally "THE PEOPLE" get the right to get rid of someoen who turns out to be a lying useless git.
Yes -- the "mother of all democracies" -- didn't have a way for the people to correct a selection error :)
Second -- again long promised -- will be a debate and hoped referendum on proportional representation voting method thus certainly ending the two-party, first past the post system.