With this weeks polls it looks like a hung parliament is the most likely outcome with the Labour party and the Conservative party seat numbers uncertain: some polls show Labour with most seats others with the Conservatives with most seats, but in all recent polls what’s clear is neither of the “old parties” (yes I’m quoting Nick Clegg, we all agree with Nick :-)) will have enough parliamentary seats to form a government without either working together (well Labour/Tory coalition government that’s never going to happen) or with Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats as the King makers or maybe with more support the actual King (who knows)!

Form the possible coalition government permutations Labour and Lib Dems or Conservatives and Lib Dems I can’t see how the Conservatives and the Lib Dems can seriously work together (they are not even close on most issues). Which for me only leaves the Labour and Lib Dem coalition government, but will they play nice together? I hope so.

Labour : Liberal Democrats Coalition Government

It looks like Labour are beginning to realise to retain any power they’ll need to work with the Liberal Democrats after the general election on May 6th.

In a memo to Labour members, Lord Mandelson said: “I am not against coalition government in principle and for Britain, anything would be better than a Cameron-Osborne government.”

I couldn’t agree more with that sentiment, the reason I created the General Election 2010 website was because in June 2009 (when I started this site) it looked like the Conservatives would win with a landslide. How things have changed in what feels like a very, very long 9-10 months in politics!

As the polls stand it looks like we’ll have parliamentary seats share in the order of:

Labour around 250 MPs
Conservatives around 250 MPs
Liberal Democrats more than 100 MPs

With 650 parliamentary constituencies a party needs 326 MPs to have clear control. No party is near the 326 magic number to form a stable government, so we are in hung parliament/coalition government territory (deep in that territory).

If these sorts of numbers come about after May 6th there will either have to be another general election (why would there be a different result?) or a coalition government (coalition governments work through out Europe so don’t believe what David Cameron is saying to save his skin).

I’m hoping for a Labour/Liberal Democrat coalition government, but I’d really like to see more power in the hands of the Liberal Democrats (roughly 50:50 would be ideal).

Wouldn’t it be great for British politics if we had a result along the lines of:

Labour around 200 MPs
Conservatives around 200 MPs
Liberal Democrats around 200 MPs
Other parties around 50 MPs

No more one party politics, where either Labour or the Conservatives push ahead with what they want with no controls. I like Labours approach to protecting workers rights etc… but I hate what they are doing to our civil liberties, they go too far down the Big Brother road which is a big worry for the future as it’s almost impossible to regain a lost civil liberty!

I see politics of consensus between two major parties like Labour and the Lib Dems could stop us going to far down the wrong road. If we the Lib Dems held enough power they could insist on voter reform to some form of proportional representation system (currently Labour are offering the Alternative Vote, which is a start and the Tories offering more of the same).

I doubt we’ll get a 50:50 split, but more power the Liberal Democrats hold the better IMO as it gives them a louder voice and if enough British people vote Lib Dems maybe they can hold the greatest share of the power.

I’m really looking forward to general election night on May 6th, watching the results come through the night to see where British politics is going.