UK General Election - Hung Parliament.

[All Seeing Eye]

Why do people get scared of a hung parliament?

Get this, I WANT a hung parliament.

Without any party having an overall majority it would require all parties to negotiate more.
For any law or bill to be passed the bigger parties would need to negotiate with for example the Lib Dems and more than likely make concessions to get their votes in favour. Same goes for the Conservatives.

The current big surge for the Lib Dems wont ensure them becoming government but they will have more seats and more voting power.

A hung parliament IMO is the best form of government there is. Even if Labour somehow manages to stay in power their absolute majority is history. If the Conservatives and Lib Dems manage to see eye to eye and make concessions to each other they could rule parliament.

So why do people get hung up about a hung parliament? pardon the pun.

Am I missing something? Having no one party with an absolute majority seems more democratic to me than one party having all the power.

 

[eastman23]

Without any party having an overall majority it would require all parties to negotiate more.

Er...



Oh, hope about the virtues of a minority parliament... how I miss thee. Every single Canadian was thinking the same thing in 2004. And 2006. Once 2008 rolled around, we knew it didn't happen before and it wasn't going to happen again. And it hasn't.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Well a hung parliament in the UK is a very rare thing and the makeup of the UK parties with there always being the main 3 looks to me to be a good thing. I consider our parties to be a mature bunch, even the parties I don't like.

I look forward to the hung parliament with hopefully some major wins for the Lib Dems.

 

[Miss Chicken]

In the recent Tasmanian election the Labor Party took 10 seats, the Liberals 10 seats and the Greens 5 seats.

The Governor of Tasmania ended up asking the Labor Party to form an minority government. They will have to cooperate with the Greens if they want to stay in power.

What has annoyed me the most that our Labor Premier want to offer a couple of ministerial positions to Greens and it was the newest Labor politicians that opposed it - a couple of politicians who have been elected for their first term and they think that they have more right to a ministerial position than a Green who has been a MP for several years.

I am glad the Greens have the balance of power. I voted Greeen in the election.

 

[Canadave]

EDIT - In response to IAL

^ That's what we thought in 2004. The Liberals had been in power too long, we needed to shake things up, time for a change, etc, etc, and the Liberals won, but only barely, 19 short of a majority. So naturally, things dissolved into infighting, and less than two years later we had another election.

This time the Tories won, with less than a majority. And guess what? Things dissolved into infighting, and, less than two years later, we had an election. The Tories won again, and were slightly closer to a minority, but not close enough.

Since then, we've had threats of a coalition government between the Liberals and New Democrats (which burst into flames when the Prime Minister suspended Parliament), and if we've gone more than a few months without election rumours starting to fly, then we're doing quite well. Trust me, minority governments aren't great.

 

[eastman23]

EDIT - In response to IAL

^ That's what we thought in 2004. The Liberals had been in power too long, we needed to shake things up, time for a change, etc, etc, and the Liberals won, but only barely, 19 short of a majority. So naturally, things dissolved into infighting, and less than two years later we had another election.

This time the Tories won, with less than a majority. And guess what? Things dissolved into infighting, and, less than two years later, we had an election. The Tories won again, and were slightly closer to a minority, but not close enough.

Since then, we've had threats of a coalition government between the Liberals and New Democrats (which burst into flames when the Prime Minister suspended Parliament), and if we've gone more than a few months without election rumours starting to fly, then we're doing quite well. Trust me, minority governments aren't great.

Part of the problems we have are an ineffective opposition party that can't figure out what they stand for and a control freak for a PM.

 

[Canadave]

^ True, of course. Still, minority governments aren't all they're cracked up to be.

 

[InklingStar]

^ True, of course. Still, minority governments aren't all they're cracked up to be.

Politicians can't screw anything up if they can't form a government. I wish my US government could come to such a standstill.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

I'm just trying to decided on which party would be the least morally corrupt when in power, its a hard call.

 

[Roger Wilco]

True story: In German there isn't even a word for "hung parliament" because it's so much the norm that anything but a "hung" parliament would be extraordinary. And the world hasn't ended there either (yet).

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I think Parliament can just go hang. Full stop.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

I think Parliament can just go hang. Full stop.

Indeed.

 

[Deckerd]

We live in interesting times.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

We live in interesting times.

Well, that's one way of putting it.

Me, I'm more distracted by the parody Tory posters featuring our very own Malcolm Tucker:

http://www.andybarefoot.com/politics/tucker.php

(what's that, you say? NOT SAFE FOR WORK, you say...? )

 

[Deckerd]

I suppose putting a positive spin on it, at least we won't have any extreme politics for the next 5 years.

 

[cultcross]

I suppose putting a positive spin on it, at least we won't have any extreme politics for the next 5 years.

You never know, we might go one whole year without founding a new Vaguely Mandated Agency for something.

 

[Pingfah]

We might even start following the advice of the advisory boards we squander millions of tax payers money on, so they can put forward considered expert opinions that are then summarily dismissed in favour of placating the ruling party's grossly misinformed voter base.

 

[cultcross]

We might even start following the advice of the advisory boards we squander millions of tax payers money on, so they can put forward considered expert opinions that are then summarily dismissed in favour of placating the ruling party's grossly misinformed voter base.

Good one. That ain't happening.