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Politics

Heres what a hung Parliament will do

469 replies

lincstash · 18/04/2010 09:42

WE have been there before, with both Wilson and Heath.

No one can rule with a minority government. Its an abortion. Nothing radical, nothing decisive can get passed into law. Nothing gets decided, no real advancement can be made, everything is fudge and a compromise.

IF we get a hung parliament, Labour will retain power (as the incumbent governments right to), completely unable to do anything decisive about the economy, and eventually, after being defeated in multiple votes government will collapse with a year, and another election will ensue. You only need a major bill such as the Finance Bill to get destroyed by the opposition, and thats thats.

Meanwhile, the militant left wing unions (UNITE and GMB) will set about ejecting Labours Blairites and Brownites from the party , (as they have promised they can and will), and whilst labour struggles along in the minority in westminster, civil war will rip the party apart as the unions seize control and force the party back to socialist far left. Policy making and decision making will cease within the government

Meanwhile, the worlds financial markets will see the political chaos, pull the plug on our credit rating and that will be it, game set an match. The economy will collapse, and the World Bank will be forced to step in, as it did with the Wilson Government. We will then be a prime target for the EU vultures to take further control of us.

THis is not speculation, this is based on previous times in our history when we have been in this position. We are the 5th largest economy because we always have had majority governments. If you want examples of what happens to countries with minority rules, look at places like Italy, Argentina, Brazil. 3rd rate counties because they cant be ruled decisively.

OP posts:
noddyholder · 20/04/2010 12:42

I have a degree in literature and philosophy but had a strong interest in politics at uni but is not my speciality

daftpunk · 20/04/2010 12:39

Thank you peachy...

I know when it comes to the exam I will be asking for the email addys of all the intelligent M'netters...I will be emailing them at 3.00am....help meeeeeeeeeeeeee..

lol

Clarissimo · 20/04/2010 12:36

If you get stuck with the philosophy bit I can, mine is in religion and philosophy

daftpunk · 20/04/2010 12:32

My degree is in Politics Philosophy and economics.....I'm on social sciences atm...

Are you offering to help me..?

Clarissimo · 20/04/2010 12:25

That artivcle is good PW. Even in Wales it has been hard to get much info on Plaid tbh.

however I honestly think that my constituerncy is a three way battle without them, partly becuase us English people seem to as dominat as the Welsh.
The comments afterwards made me arrggghhh then. What will persyade me to vote LD or Plaid or anything toehr than main 2 aprties more wuickly than anything: the stupid party political game playing that comes out as soon as anyone else looks as if they may get a vote.

Sometimes I feel as they may as well all wear t shirts saying 'don't vote for the others, they smell and want to steal your husbands' and ditch the PR machines

Fliight · 20/04/2010 12:17

See, NOW we're having a debate! Lovely, isn't it! and OP has very little to do with it, at this juncture. Which is also telling.

Policywonk I am anointing the afflicted areas as we speak, using tincture of Clegg, prepared lovingly on a copy of the Guardian.

It was something to do with a publication date for a piece of editorial which has now been withdrawn and is going in a different paper. (thank God)

noddyholder · 20/04/2010 12:17

DP IF you are really doing a politics degree and you think lincstash is well informed and knows his stuff you are going to be up shit creek come exam time !

Clarissimo · 20/04/2010 12:14

Ta will read

onlyu a blog but clearly didn't imagine it then

Shame though- liked a lot they ahd to say. We ahd the televised hustings with Plaid last night and Plaid lady seemed Ok- a bit sound- bitey for my tastes (more on s
hating spin than what she did like) but IMO performed better than Labour or tories. Lembit seemed popular but he has tobhe the one LD MP I cannot stick, bit too rent-a-prat for my tastes

policywonk · 20/04/2010 12:10

lol Welsh Navy DIdn't see that one. Agree re. reducing the number of MPs - most are ridiculously over-worked as far as I can tell. DOn't see how giving them bigger constituencies would help anyone (would be an argument in favour of STV that it would lighten the constituency load, I suppose).

Llwyd article is here

policywonk · 20/04/2010 12:05

100x is bloody lovely

Clarissimo · 20/04/2010 12:05

Actualy one polict of the Tories I loathe is reducing number of MP's: I want a representative who has time to help if needed. Surely a reduced number of MP's is a reduced say in the country? A vote giving me 1/25000th of a say is bad enough (Discalimer: random figure); a vote giving me 1/30000th far worse.

vesela · 20/04/2010 12:04

here is link to the whole post if anyone's interested (I was hazy on STV myself).

ahundredtimes · 20/04/2010 12:03

lol. See, I told you were sweet.

claig · 20/04/2010 12:02

ahundredtimes, I can see that it is doubtful, but I have faith and believe you can change, you are not irredeemable.

Clarissimo · 20/04/2010 12:02

Plaid are OK but sup[port ehre pretty much non existent. Are they still after a Welsh navy? We ahd a leaflet last time from them and we couldntb work out if it was genuine or a spoof with that on it

Will see if I can find that article, ta. haven't see a paper in days- ds4 has chickenpox. The local yummy mummy's would shoot me if I took the Unpresentable One outside atm

Our AM is a Lib Dem and represents us very well, to the extent that when ds3 was struggling without helpin a MS school in nappies and non verbal he wwent and sat on teh LEA desk until it as sorted. I would have to be abrmy not to vote for that level of support tbh. regardless of aprty labels, isn't that what most of us want from a representative? Someone who gets involved when needed?

vesela · 20/04/2010 11:59

excuse the cut-and-paste job - this is from libdemvoice blog re. STV.

STV: competition drives up standards

So how should the party try and sell STV in the future? Well, two related points have stuck in my mind over the past day or so. First, here?s Lib Dem MP David Howarth?s defence against the oft-repeated accusation that STV breaks the constituency link:

"it would not. It would just mean that there were more Members per constituency. It would break the one Member, one constituency link. For 17 years I was a local councillor and there were three members in my ward, but I did not feel that that meant I represented the people in my ward less. In fact, when a member of another party represented the ward for a few years, it increased competition between the parties in the ward and made us all better representatives."

It?s an important and crucial point: STV does not break the link between MPs and their constituencies. What STV does do is increase voter choice. Not only can the electorate rank parties in order of preference, but they can also mix and match ? for example, voting for a Lib Dem MP who has been particularly helpful on a piece of casework, while casting their other votes for Labour/Tories in accordance with their wider political views.

ahundredtimes · 20/04/2010 11:59

You should keep an open mind on that one Claig

claig · 20/04/2010 11:58

ahundredtimes, may God bless you too, and I hope He will make you a sweeter person.

policywonk · 20/04/2010 11:57

wynken - the Conservatives are the only one of the main three parties that are not proposing any kind of electoral reform, yes. Although to be fair, Labour have been dreadful on this issue, and are only proposing it now because they look like losing.

policywonk · 20/04/2010 11:55

Thanks Clar. There was an interesting interview with Elfyn llwyd in the Grauniad y'day - did you see it? It gave a quick run-down of Plaid policies and I bet I wasn't the only limp-wristed lefty thinking 'why can't I vote for them'

WynkenBlynkenandNod · 20/04/2010 11:55

Oh dear sorry, that came out a bit wrong, was on my iphone.

DP, I haven't decided yet who I want, will be watching with interest and deciding by 6th May.

Animula, thank you for that. What I don't think I fully understand is the current system. Every so often I see someone posting on MN that as the system works now we aren't technically voting for a leader of a party but voting for the person we feel will represent best in Parliament. I get that.

Now to me this doesn't seem very sensible and I know that looking at previous elections that the number of seats a party gains doesn't correspond to the number of votes placed. So to me this is an antiquated system and I would like to see some kind of electoral reform, whatever that may be.

I have heard Clegg say they support PR and Brown say there would be referendum but was under the impression watching Cameron that he didn't want any kind of electoral reform, though may have got that wrong.

So if Cameron ie. Conservative party don't want reform, I can only assume they want things to stay the same. So I therefore should be technically be voting for whoever I feel will represent my constituency best in Parliament, which is a Lib Dem candidate, which doesn't help the Conservatives one iota.

I hope that makes sense, I've probably lost a link of logic somewhere, it is just DH and I were trying to explain this all to the DC yesterday and I confused myself (easily done !)

ahundredtimes · 20/04/2010 11:54

Claig, bless you That was sweet.

Clarissimo · 20/04/2010 11:53

(oops AMS I meant)
Quite a good rationale explanation on the link

policywonk · 20/04/2010 11:52

Ah right, thanks vesela. I think that the 'Vote for ideas' site might be wrong on that point then - when I was doing it last night I couldn't see any mention of STV (I came out 75% Green and 25%.... TORY)

claig · 20/04/2010 11:51

ahundredtimes,
"It's honestly because I was under the impression you were one of many who have joined quite recently for reasons other than being a parent or just wanting to be a part of MN for the sake of it."

well I am afraid you are wrong about this. You may also be wrong about politics and that is why you should keep an open mind and expose yourself to different viewpoints, in case other people have ideas that may change your mind.