A taste of things to come

[abr1de]

This is what it will be like for the next year or so. Endless, secret talks while we all hang around waiting for them to let us know.

Democracy? Don't make me laugh. It's going to be endless horse-trading to appease a party that could never get elected on its own merits.

I almost hope that the coalition of losers goes ahead and everyone can see the horlicks they make of it. THey'll have to scrounge votes from every single tiny party around.

Yuck.

Just before the election John Prescott was arguing against PR, saying that it would result in individual politicians scrambling over who was going to get the juiciest cabinet jobs - and he was exactly right!

I am very worried that if Labour did return to power as part of coalition, they would carry out their intention to push through 'immediate legislation' for electoral reform with no referendum first.

'the Canadians and the Germans manage to work perfectly well with minority governments and coalitions. Not entirely sure why the British assume they are incapable of behaving like adults'

Canada and Germany are federal states, so the role of the central government is very different from the role of the government in Britain.

MintHumbug, my Ulster friends regard themselves as British, make no mistake!

I said this somewhere else.

I heard a piece on the radio the other day about how it took the Germans about twenty years to get used to how coalition governments work

takes ages to dismantle the tribal politics structures

takes a long time for people to get used to it

i agree with Stewie actually. I think this shows how politics really works - we're seeing it for the first time - it is all compromise and discussion and negotiation

The electorate need to grow up and understand that.

I really admire John Reid for his comments.

I see Plaid and Ulster are already grasping away for more money.

This all stinks, if I was DC and the cons I would walk away now and let them all get on with it. The concept that one Green MP can rule the roost is unacceptable.

Who's hysterical, StewieGriffins?

We're vomiting in a contained manner.

And ahundredtimes how condescending to tell the 'electorate' to grow up. Silly little people who don't know anything about it.

The Germans had had their political system utterly obliterated by the war. Their country had been divided, millions had lost their homes. There were good reasons why they and the world wanted not much to happen there politically for thirty or forty years or so. And not much did happen until 1989. It was stagnant. I went round some Germany parliaments (state and federal) in the eighties with some politicians and my god it was dull. They could barely decide whether to ham or cheese on their Broetchen.

Sorry, a few words missing there. The laptop is dying. I blame the government.

Vomiting in a contained or utterly wild way, still an over-reaction though, non?

I think we'll end up with a conservative government of some kind at the end of all this

I don't mean to be patronising, I'm just expressing an opinion! The electorate said they wanted a hung parliament, and now they've got one. And now they have to wait and see how it is going to play out - and not pee their pants because politicians are compromising and negotiating with one another. imo

As I have said on my own thread, I came to the conclusion that there should be a con/lab coalition. This would be possible now that GB is going.
Most of the British Isles voted for one of these two parties.
It is wrong that minority parties should hold most of the power.
I know that there is no hope of this but I think it would be far and away the fairest solution and incidently, the simplest.

'simplest'.... ??? The idea that two parties with very different policies on fundamental issues could work together is many things but it's certainly not 'simple'.

I think it is far too early to be condemning as there are far too many "what if" situations.
So much doom and gloom, without any real substance, just speculation at what might happen.
Oh, and so much vitriol. Why is that?