What would be so bad about a hung parliament?

[thricenay]

Given that you can't get a bbq pringle between the 3 main parties policy-wise and that they're all made up of 'career politicians' skilled in the art of wheeling and dealing to get things done?

Nothing, as far as I'm concerned. In a lot of ways, no decisions for a while will be a lot better than loads of rubbish decisions taken for the sake of it by an incoming government.

And even if it doesn;t lead to electoral reform, hung parliaments and minority governments do lead to more consensus politics, which, IMO, is a good thing.

That's what I was thinking and 2cat and yet it's amazing how many people I've read on MN and elsewhere saying anything but a hung parliament.

politicians don't like them as things move more slowly, but I think that's a good thing in many cases - all legislation gets argued over more

but you're wrong about all the policies being the same, they're not. they all talk similar rhetoric, but the policies themselves are quite different.

My dad thinks a coalition government will be wonderful - the only way forward he says.

hmm

ahh but i reckon people are trying to scare us about a hung parliament to ensure that more people don't vote LD.

No one is saying that a hung parliament is the same as a coalition government. I agree- they are completely different.

Yes, both lead to back room deals and alliances, but that happens in the FPP system already, but is even MORE secretive than it would be in either of the scenarios you talk about. And alliances on an issue by issue basis can be a fantastic way of minority parties influencing the centre on issues of real importance.

For instance, you might not vote for the Green Party, because you don;t see them as a contender for government, but you might welcome their influence on certain areas of policy and legislation. A coalition or minority government lets this happen in a way that a majority government doesn't.

And the markets will just bloody well get used to it. I can bear all this blethering about market confidence. Believe it or not, that wasn't top of my priorities as I cast my vote this afternoon- it was what was going to be the best outcome for me and mine.

What bothers me now with this sudden gushing about electoral reform from Labour... is that if PR goes through and Labour permanently sides with the LDs to form a governement we will have a Labour government in perpetuity. What a terrible thought.

DC's warning of 'vote LD, get Labour' looks increasingly likely.

It doesn't have to work that way. There are lots of right-wing scenarios too (shivers in horror). Proportional rep might mean that UKIP might actually win seats oR it might mean the emergence of completely new parties- all of whom might naturally side with the Tories.

And people vote differently under a PR system than they do under a FPP system. For a start, they actually vote for the party they want rather than the tactically.

Roll on PR, I say.

People voted for the party they wanted last night and so far they've kicked out 6 Lib Dems who have also lost share of the total vote. That suggests less tactical voting rather than more.... surely?

I'm no Lib_dem supporter/ apologist, but I suspect that some people DIDN'T vote for the party they wanted last night. All of the polls running up to the election suggested that an increased number of people wanted to vote for the lib-dems. When it actually came to putting a cross on the ballot paper, however, many people would not have thought it was a 'wasted' vote and bottled it.

This is much less likely to happen under PR because, especially under a list vote system, ALL votes count.

Your argument may hold water elsewhere, but the people in 6 constituencies with a sitting LD MP presumably could be extremely confident that their vote was anything but 'wasted'.... and still they opted for something else.

Those results don't detract from my argument. They were all marginal constituencies. Just a small increase in the turn out in the vote (which has happened across lots of constituencies yesterday) can affect results in those kinds of areas.

I think that what the overall share of the vote is showing is that we don't have a 2-party system any more- we have a 3-party system. FPP just doesn't work when there's a 3-party system. You need something else.

Anyway, Chil- my children awake and I have to go. Am not chickening out on the discussion

Blummin' ell. Nearly 7am and no overlal result yet!