At the up coming UK general election there’s a realistic possibility of a hung parliament. All serious polls point to a Conservative election win, but with UKIP’s strong showing in the 2009 EU elections and the Tories appearing to be turning their back on Euroscepticism, could Eurosceptic UKIP split the Conservative vote (Eurosceptic Conservative MPs […]
Continue Reading UK General Election Hung Parliament
Whichever party wins i would still like to see vince cable as chancellor i think the dude talks alot of sense,
personally i’ve always wanted a all party coalition which happaned in world war two but if we had it in peace time then we can stop all this stupid, pathetic name calling and critcising other party ideas and all the mps would pull togeather to out the great back in great britain.
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If the tories get in, my husband and i are leaving the country.
Thats a little extreme….
I am guessing you have no lived in many other country’s in the world. Better get ready to fork out for a load of other stuff, pensions, health care, even schools in some places.
Move to a country that has a better eccamoic situation then us, somewhere like Norway and pay 50% income tax and 27.5% VAT. Lovely…
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The point in if the Tories get in we wont HAVE a great economic system. FACT.
Is that intended to be a threat?
It really is time for a change. lets give Lib Dem a chance.
They have put some good policy forward and seem to want to make changes to the way our country’s electrical system works, to make voting truly fare and to hold politicians to account for there actions.
I am 26 and like a lot of people my age I have never voted before in a general election because I have never really believed that my voted counted for much. I now finally feel that this is not just a 2 party race (2 party’s that are very similar) and that my vote can make the difference.
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As a first time voter, I have been trying to work out which party I identify with the most. I have to say, are the people of Britain voting on looks? Are you voting because you are a ‘tory’ or ‘labour’? Are you voting against Gordon Brown because he has no charisma?
I have no idea what the coversatives stand for or what their policy is, but I really cannot understand how anyone can vote for them when 49 economists have petitioned against their policy as it will undoubtbly plunge Britain into a recession.
What are the tory policies too? If I took their manifesto to my boss as a business plan he would throw it back in my face and tell me to rewrite; cost, measurements, charges, benefits. The tories run around agreeing with everything, but do not provide specifics.
Cameron is the most fake person ever. Can nobody see through him?… Out jogging with his yankee bodyguard and inviting everyone round for tea in his living room.
I know Gordon Brown is boring but he reminds me of an old school teacher. He is a great economist and really things could have been a hell of a lot worse, I dont think we are giving the guy enough credit.
Maybe we should swap Gordon Brown for Nick Clegg, because I dont think much of the Lib Dems policy either.
At the end of the day, if you all want to go back to yesteryear where nobody hardly ever had any money and lost their jobs in the days of maggie thatcher then so be it.
I totally and completely understand why someone would want to leave this country.
Just wait and see …….
I’ll be voting for a hung parliament
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After reading many of the comments left here (and i’m a firm believer that everyone is entitled to there own opinion) I find it very hard to believe what the conservatives say they will do will actually happen!!
People seem to forget very quickly how much of a mess this country was getting into last time they had control of it?! Same old Conservatives… the rich get richer and the rest of us working citizens pay for it! nothing will ever change! they don’t know the real meaning of change!
I’m not saying the Labour party are perfect but i honestly do believe that this country has become stronger and more stable under them. I do also believe that through the ‘media spun’ recession Gorden Brown was and is the correct person to lead us out of it! Like him or not he is the right man with the right team and the right skills!
On the topic of climate change and becoming a greener country… Please forgive me if i am wrong but i do believe it was the Conservatives who broke up the rail network and forced us onto the roads in our cars?? along with many other things they ruined?
I am sure that you will guess my vote is firmly in the Labour camp
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Sadly, whilst every body is entitled to their own opinion and vote (in a democracy), most UK voters perspective of politics is clouded by: a poor understanding of both (especially political) history and economics (thanks to a wanting academic curriculum): virtually no understanding of governance (domestic or foreign): a fiscally driven media more interested in sensation and gloss than substance: and the remnants of a class system that still fuels conservative (not party) political dogma. Some of the above also applies in the US although I suggest (and the UK media should listen) any comparisons between the two polities shows more about the lack of sagacity and understanding of the observer than anything else
Any apolitical analysis of politics in the UK since the World War two…..suggests that the most important ingredient for change (which is by no means a new mantra) is strong leadership and governance, regardless of ideology. Advances for both social welfare and free market best practice have been made by strong administrations on both sides of the coin …….. and of late there has been more and more consensus as both parties lurch toward the centre. Tony Blair called it the third way and on this platform Cameron (without Reality TV – potential PM Debate) would have prior to the recent economic slump been the natural successor to Blair (my blog on this was used by the Times..front page promoting their website….. following Blair’s resignation.)
Nick Clegg for all his populist new found appeal (worrying how ill informed the British public were of current Liberal politics and their personalities……prior to a political X factor) is a lightweight, and without the strap line that the Liberals are the natural party of the centre (consensus politics)and youth on his side …….would be floundering like his predecessors. A far more telling version of the strengths and weaknesses of Clegg could be seen when he was interviewed by Paxman, especially when compared to Cameron……..
This election is basically about the direction to take following the failure for the US to remember that Adam Smith never ruled out interventionist politics..indeed those keen readers of his works will know he was very worried about the effects of greed on his free market philosophy.
Ironically at this election for the first time for years there is a political choice for specific immediate change between on the one hand perceived fiscal stability (Labour – strong Keynesian) as stimulus appears to be slowly working and on the other an attempt (Conservative – not eliminating Keynes by any means) to ‘change gear’ by revitalising the private sector and begin dealing with a ‘tax timebomb’ that many apparently don’t or don’t want to see. Against that a hung parliament (given the real choice that exists) will be an anticlimax bringing, in pragmatic terms, business as usual.
That said, the scenario that might well then transpire is the Hung Parliament will introduce a Brown Clegg pact………however economics will be entrusted in Labour ranks as well as anything of real substance. Cameron will meanwhile benefit by the gradual reality dawning on the voters that nothing has changed………another election will be called early (say after two years if not before) as winters of discontent mount and at that point the Liberals benefit from the promise of cross floor activity from the “Social Democrats” Labourites …..Blair would have been one. At the forthcoming election Labour is extinguished to third party status held for the last 75 years odd by the Liberals…….but a Conservative administration will get in……there will however now be a strong Liberal party as a working concern. It might even benefit by a move from some ambitious Tory politicians into the Liberal camp …..Cameron however having nailed his flag to the mast, will be compelled to take the Tories into more extreme pasture ……..and the Liberals will win the next election with a landslide victory to form their first administration for many a year in 2017.
This I suggest is a far more pragmatic answer to those Brits who are seeking a realistic change to the political canvas and business as usual….. a Liberal party blatantly Centre half Left ….with importantly strong Leadership (Clegg could possibly hold on as a figurehead but very questionable given the likes of Milliband being in his ranks ……forget Cable and the others they are with exceptions deadweight) and Governance.
All this of course presumes that the Liberals are not dumb enough to introduce PR just when there glory days are re-achievable!!
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Bullshit Bullshit Bullshit, Labour have been the shittest government the uk has ever seen! low moral in the NHS, no money, job cuts, tax rises, its been the worst time for the uk recently, and during tht time, labour party were in power!
What led you to this educated opinion? was it born after many years of reading the Sun and Star? given your english and grammar, I feel that you lack eduaction on most levels!!…..What a shame people who know very little about fiscal, monetary or government policy get the chance to vote. Where was the rest of Europes economies whilst ours was thriving? …I guess you would not know!…Yes there have been global collapse of the financial markets, however we have had one of the most sucessful economic governance in Europe. DO NOT PUT OUR COUNTRY BACK IN THE HANDS OF THE TORIES!! GOD HELP US!!
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tipical tory boy look at the facts labour has given us TAX CREDITS both working and child ,higher investment in the NHS and SCHOOLS than the torries or lib dems would have ever dreamed of ,more bobbys on the beat ,also before the greedy bankers balls it up thanks to gorden brown he gave our country the highest and most substained growth year on year our economy has ever seen ….
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Yep you are right and a lovely picture it makes, however what is coming boy oh boy, dig up your lawns because we will have to grow our own food.
A hung parliament works really well in Germany for decades so why should we be so afraid of it here?
It keeps the government honest because unlike in the ‘big majority of seats approach’ we are used to the biggest party cannot force something through, so the decisions that are reached tend to be much more acceptable to the many.
Doesn’t that equal better democracy because more voters views will be represented?
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It’s not just clan solidarity, but I find myself agreeing with Peter MacLean, rather than with “Straight 8” on the resultsof a hung Parliament at this election. I think we are seeing the “Strange Death of Labour Britain” which may take a year or two to happen fully.
It’s not so “Strange” when you consider that it wasn’t just a few greedy Tory MPs who misused their expenses allowances–quite a few Labour MPs, INCLUDING SOME FAIRLY SENIOR MINISTERS, helped themselves in ways which ordinary (or honest!) voters found unacceptable, and this is part of the punishment being meted out to the Labour Party, irrespective of whether one likes Gordon Brown or not.
We may therefore get a Coalition Government lasting anything from six months to two years, followed by another election in which the remnants of Labour will virtually disappear, and the battleground will be between Lib-Dem and Tory.
Whatever happens, it’s going to be interesting!
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