07 May 10 UK Parliament Hung – What Next?
So, what does happen now?
As no one party has an overall majority (326 seats or more), some wheeling and dealing probably needs to go on.
Gordon Brown and David Cameron are both making overtures to Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal Democrats to come to an agreement for support, or even a full coalition.
However, the Liberal Democrats are not the centre party of yesterday; they are politically to the left of the Labour Party, and there may be little real common ground that they can agree on with the Conservatives.
If Gordon Brown cannot get such an agreement with the Liberal Democrats, then he will almost certainly concede to David Cameron in any case, who would be invited by the Queen to form the next Government.
The Conservatives could, in theory, go it alone, as a minority party. However, they are likely to find it very difficult to conduct much business in the House in the way they would wish to.
My own personal view, is that there is likely to be another General Election in the UK within the next twelve months.
Read more on the Hung Parliament at The Guardian
Tags: common ground, conservatives, david cameron, general election, gordon brown, guardian uk, labour party, liberal democrats, minority party, nick clegg, overtures, personal view, queen, twelve months, uk parliament
06 May 10 UK Election Day
Unlike in the US where the President is directly elected, in the UK voters simply cast their ballot for a candidate in their local constituency, not a direct vote for Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is usually the leader of the party that wins the most seats.. There are 650 of these, known as seats. The UK uses a First Past the Post system. To become an MP, a candidate simply has to win more votes than any rival in their constituency, not a majority of votes cast.
After all the ballots have been counted for each of the 650 constituencies, the leader of the party that has won the most seats is invited to Buckingham Palace to become Prime Minister and form the next Government.
To win an outright majority, one party needs more than half of the 650 seats, or at least 326. If no party has got that many seats, then the largest single party could form a minority Government. This may or may not be workable, as it would usually rely on getting support for policies from one or more of the other parties (probably in return for agreeing to supporting one of more of their policies in turn).
It could quite quickly lead to a call for another election, if this wasn’t workable. Any Government can be toppled by a vote of ‘no confidence’ and this is much more likely if no party has an overall majority.
Tags: election, general election, Politics, UK
04 Nov 08 The USA Decides 2008
See the 2008 US Election Results here or click on the link at the top of the page.
