Time for Change? (UK General Election)

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Sureboss
Lib Dem will not win anything like enough seats, the polls may be saying they are above Labour in the polls, and not far off the Tories (though it is all quite close), but they won't win enough seats.

I see Cameron as our next PM, and with him and George Osborne in power, we're going to have some fun times.
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I hear Labour may trade seats to Lib Dem in return for alliance against Tories.
 
Famine
Indeed. It's literally impossible. Which begs the question... from where did Dotini hear it?
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I listen to/watch BBC coverage over here on our public stations. I'm sure I misunderstood, but it seemed like Brown was offering to Clegg to go ahead with reform of the rules which would allow more seating in the future for the Lib Dems. Since the Tories didn't do this, the Lib Dems would presumably be obliged to Labour in some presently undefined way.

Respectfully,
 
Basically, the Lib Dems want Proportional Representation (PR) to replace the current "First Past The Post" system, which would mean that they would almost certainly get more seats than they currently do for their share of the vote. The Lib Dems current get about 20% of the vote, but just under 10% of seats in Parliament. And despite only getting 35% of the vote in the last election, Labour managed to get just over 50% of the seats (i.e. an overall majority), which is currently required for a party to form a government. This year, the pundits believe that the Tories will get the highest % of votes, but that Labour could still get the highest number of seats, which would mean a hung parliament. The Lib Dems will almost certainly score a better % of the vote than previously in this election, but how that translates into seats in parliament is another matter... Either way, this election will not be conducted under a PR system, hence why it is unlikely/impossible for Labour to make any deals regarding boosting the Lib Dems number of MPs in the forthcoming parliament.
 
In the event of a hung parliment, Nick Clegg has the others by the balls. They will attempt to force through Proportional representation. If the other parties don't agree he can simply refuse to form a government with them (In which case, I have no idea what would happen next... Another election maybe?)
 
Seismica
If the other parties don't agree he can simply refuse to form a government with them (In which case, I have no idea what would happen next... Another election maybe?)
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Nope. It'd be five years (or fewer) with whomever got the most seats as Prime Minister, but nothing actually happening unless at least two parties agreed on any given piece of legislation.
 
I was under the impression that Gordon Brown would remain Prime Minister in the event of a hung parliament, even if Labour don't get the most seats. Obviously, if this is the case, he would face massive pressure to resign, but he wouldn't be obliged to - but it does seem a tad ridiculous that Brown could come 3rd in a three horse race and still 'win'...
 
No, the Prime Minister and cabinet would be at the party with the largest number of MPs' discretion. Which is part of the same rule that means we have Gordon Brown right now.


One of my favourite bits of Labourfail in the last couple of days has been overshadowed by Bigotgate (oh come on, it was going to happen anyway).

Sky News's Adam Boulton and BBC's Nick Robinson were both haranguing "Lord" Mandelson for an answer to a question he was avoiding and belittleing them for not knowing already ("I'll make sure you get a copy of our manifesto", he smarmed at them). Midway through Boulton's quite dogged persistance, Mandelson interrupted him with

"Yes, but you're not standing for election, are you Adam?"

At which point every journalist in the room said:

"Neither are you. You're a peer." :lol:


I hate Mandelson. All the flesh on my face crawls to the back of my head when he's on TV.
 
Famine


I hate Mandelson. All the flesh on my face crawls to the back of my head when he's on TV.
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I'm the same with Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, sorry, I mean, the Shadow Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. You know, the one below Clarke. ;)
 
He is a bit creepy. Nothing compared to such wonderful Tory luminaries as Michael Howard, Jeffrey Archer, Jonathan Aitken or the fabulously vile John Redwood.

They don't have a patch on Mandelson though. If it came down to a choice between meeting all of the above in a dark alley or Mandelson, it'd be the Undead Tories. Unless I had akimbo 1887s, then it'd be Mandelson. He's like Venger from Dungeons and Dragons (or, if plagiarism is your bag, Voldemort). I suspect the only way to kill him would be a pair of silver garlic stakes through each of his cold, dead hearts.
 
Famine
He's like Venger from Dungeons and Dragons (or, if plagiarism is your bag, Voldemort). I suspect the only way to kill him would be a pair of silver garlic stakes through each of his cold, dead hearts.
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mandelsonemperor.jpg
 
Quick! Someone melt Tony Blair in lava and hide Leo with distant relatives, a pair of robot helpers and get him trained by a green, syntax-mangling dwarf!
 
Famine
He's like Venger from Dungeons and Dragons (or, if plagiarism is your bag, Voldemort). I suspect the only way to kill him would be a pair of silver garlic stakes through each of his cold, dead hearts.
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You do know that Voldemort doesn't die by being stabbed by silver garlic stakes, don't you Famine?
 
Should I bring this back on topic? The elections in Northern Ireland are interesting if you ask me. The Traditional Unionist Voice party to me seem like NI*'s (*Northern Ireland) BNP. The BNP, as we all know too well, stemmed from the political wing of the fascist National Front. The TUV branched off from the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party), and are staunchly anti-Nationalist (for those who don't know, a Nationalist someone who wants a completely independent Ireland). The TUV don't seem too different from the BNP: the BNP emphasise racial purity masked as "racial identity", which to me seems like a sure sign of a racist group, while the TUV call Nationalists "terrorists" (seeing as Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, are a Nationalist party) and probably want to drag NI back to the dark days of rampant discrimination against Catholics.
 
Famine
No, the Prime Minister and cabinet would be at the party with the largest number of MPs' discretion. Which is part of the same rule that means we have Gordon Brown right now.
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I don't think this is right. Technically, Brown has to stay as Prime Minister in the immediate aftermath of an election returning a hung parliament, but unless his party win the most seats, he would be "expected to" resign - eventually. But, presumably Brown would be expected to not resign until the House of Commons returned a vote of confidence in someone, be it Brown as PM in a Lab-Lib pact, Cameron as PM in a Con-Lib pact, or Clegg as PM in either.
 
I've just listened to Mandelson defending Brown on the Jeremy Vine show. He sounds a lot like Michael Howard to me. Both of them brings up the image of a snake hissing in the grass and waiting to bite you when your backs turned to me. Yuck. :yuck:

As for who I'll vote for, it's either the Lib-Dem's or I'll write Expenses across the slip.
 
Touring Mars
I don't think this is right. Technically, Brown has to stay as Prime Minister in the immediate aftermath of an election returning a hung parliament, but unless his party win the most seats, he would be "expected to" resign - eventually. But, presumably Brown would be expected to not resign until the House of Commons returned a vote of confidence in someone, be it Brown as PM in a Lab-Lib pact, Cameron as PM in a Con-Lib pact, or Clegg as PM in either.
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Brown has already resigned, technically.

It isn't the job of the House of Commons to create a Prime Minister. The party with the most seats in the Commons has their leader summoned by the Queen and asked to form a government. Now, technically, that's not necessarily the individual party that retains the most seats - the last time this situation occurred was February 1974 and Edward Heath, the Prime Minister at the time of the General Election, finished with marginally fewer seats than Harold Wilson. Heath attempted a Coalition Government (I forget with whom) which would have given him, as leader of the Coalition, the greatest number of MPs and he'd have taken the call from the Queen.

Heath's attempt failed and Wilson, as the leader of the most MPs, was requested by the Queen to form a government - a minority government. As you can imagine, it wasn't especially stable and another General Election was called in October 1974, which Wilson won with a majority of 3.

Ultimately, between the calling of a General Election and the formation of a new government - be it minority, majority or coalition - there is no Prime Minister or House of Commons and we're technically ruled by the Queen. Though ultimately if an emergency was called in this interregnum, the previous Prime Minister and Government (and MPs, for that matter) will be recalled.


Edit: I just read the Wiki page on the Febuary 1974 election and it says Heath resigned after the Coalition failed. I don't believe this is accurate because, as above, he'd be required to resign for the election to be called. It ought to say that he conceded.
 
Again, I don't believe that to be accurate (though my opinion of the BBC and their accuracy is well known):

In 1974, Edward Heath stayed in power for four days after the election trying to put together a coalition, even though Labour had the largest number of seats in Parliament.

A party can stay in power without an absolute majority by trying to forge an alliance with a smaller party to create a coalition government, which would usually involve policy concessions and allowing members of the smaller party into the cabinet.
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"Stay in power" is sloppy terminology. Currently there is no power - there's no parliament to have power over*! Heath didn't "stay in power" - he tried to form a Coalition so he could resume being Prime Minister. When this didn't happen he had to concede defeat because he led fewer MPs (as Coalition leader he'd have led 304; as Conservative leader he led 297) than Wilson did (301). The reality was not 4 more days of Heath being Prime Minister, but 4 more days of there being no parliament.


*Except, as noted above, if they're called back in an emergency. The normal course of events right now means there is no parliament, government, Prime Minister... just the Queen (which, incidentally, is one of the reasons the armed forces and police swear allegiance to the monarch)
 
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Famine
Brown has already resigned, technically.
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Technically not. According to Parliament's own website, 'the Government does not resign when Parliament is dissolved', and hence Gordon Brown is still officially Prime Minister until he does resign or is replaced by the Queen. Unless his party win the most seats in the election, he would almost certainly resign. But, it is possible that he may not resign (and continue being PM) even if Labour don't win the most seats, on the basis that the election produces no clear candidate with a stronger mandate, and the possibility remains that Brown can form a coalition with the Liberals. Of course, there is also the question of what happens if Labour do win the most seats (by a tiny margin), and Brown did resign as PM... the Queen would then have to appoint someone, and presumably from Labour. Could it be Balls to the lot of us? :nervous:
 
Well... yersee... it's like this...

When a General Election is called, parliament is dissolved. The Prime Minister's job title is "Head of Her Majesty's Government" and, since it doesn't exist, his job doesn't exist. So by requesting Her Majesty to dissolve parliament for a General Election, he technically resigned.

Though, as noted above, an emergency may require the reconvention of parliament and, on that occasion, it would be done so with the exact parliamentary make-up of that which preceded the dissolution. The normal course of affairs, though, means that we don't actually have any MPs at all right now, much less government, a cabinet or parliament.


I wonder if they're salaried for this month?
 
Good question - perhaps they just claim this month's costs on expenses... no, wait...

If ever a picture could sum up an entire election campaign for Labour, it would have to be this (from here):

crash1_1C_585x350_712775a.jpg
 
One of the refuse collectors, a 40-year-old man who identified himself only as Dell, denied causing the crash and was totally unapologetic. "Half our jobs are gone left, right and centre in this city," he said.
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He also added "This time next year, Rodders, we'll be under a Conservative government".
 

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