Why a Hung Parliament is a good thing
The polls are closing, the tension is rising- it’s going to be a hung parliament. Or so say the polls anyway. These are the slightly twisted lyrics to the famous 80′s song, “It’s raining men” and in a world of politics where females are few and far between, it truly is raining men in many constituencies across the UK. My digression aside, the polls, the bookies, and practically any other well-informed person in UK politics are all chanting the words “hung parliament” like the recitation of a mantra on a rosary. What I wish to answer is exactly what is a hung parliament and if it is a good thing for the British people.
Well firstly, what exactly is a hung parliament? Well for a party to form a government, they need an absolute majority. What this means is that they have won more seats in parliament than all the other parties combined. However, if this doesn’t happen than quite simply, all the other smaller parties can band together and outvote the minority government and this can make things like passing laws very tough. This scenario is known as a “hung parliament”. If this were to happen, the current prime minister (Gordon Brown) can go ahead and form a coalition government with a smaller party so that laws can be passed smoothly and easily.
In the past couple of weeks, we have heard a lot of political scare-mongering from plenty of UK papers about how a hung parliament would be detrimental to the UK as a whole. Personally, I couldn’t disagree more. Papers like The Sun have been saying that a hung parliament is an ineffective and weak government. However, this couldn’t be more further from the truth. There are other countries that have done perfectly well with a coalition government such as Germany and New Zealand, not to mention the Scottish Parliament and Welsh National assembly. Let’s not forget that during the Second World War, we had a coalition government as well. Some papers have grumbled that parties such as the Liberal Democrats are not a credible party that should never be in power. Quite frankly, this is nonsense. According to a recent YouGov poll, if the Lib Dems had a fair slice of the democratic cake, nearly half of voters would have voted for them. It is quite clear based on this that people are crying out for electoral reform and lets hope that results tonight will show this. A lot of people are concerned that a hung parliament might affect our economic recovery and again, this is simply fear-mongering. According to a recent study by the House of Commons, 7 out of 10 of the largest fiscal consolidations ever carried out were done under coalition governments since 1970. It is fairly obvious that a coalition government can certainly do it.
For me, I believe that a positive attitude towards our politics is vital. Far too many people have lost faith in politicians and are no longer interested in UK politics. With the highly likely event of a Hung Parliament, it would get more people interested in politics, it would bring a more representative government, and certainly bring electoral reform to UK politics.
The scaremongering on the part of the right-wing press regarding HP is ridiculous. The Mail carried an article yesterday, and I quote, “Look what Nick Clegg’s Beloved PR System did to Greece.” That’s even more outlandish than “Clegg Nazi Slur on Britain.”
A quick calculation of mine this at one point this morning had Labour with 33,000 votes per seat, the Tories on 34,000, and the Liberal Democrats on 126,000. Fair? Clearly not.
It’s raining men?! I do hope not. I know MPs might have fiddled expenses but having them splattered on the pavement will need cleaning up, costing councils money and raising taxes (more)!!! ;o)
To some extent it’s understandable that the media is hyping the election so much, describing the results in terms of “good, bad and ugly” to viewers. This is one of the closest elections in recent times and so you’d expect the media to milk it – at last an opportunity to turn a low-ratings event into a national make-or-break moment, with huge viewing figures. If you knew all would work out, you wouldn’t be interested…
If Gordon Brown formed a coalition with the Lib dems they wouldnt have an absolute majority and would not be able to pass legislation smoothly or commit to either manifesto smoothly as the some 29% of people who voted Labour did not vote Lib dem therefore in this instance the Lib dems do not have a just mandate to commit to anything in their manifesto and likewise the Labour party would not be just in commiting to their manifesto as the Lib dems have 23% overall vote.
A poll was taken where people were shown Lib Dem policies and 60% of people agreed with them, the same poll was then taken but the title of Lib dem policy was omitted and 25% agreed with their policies.
It just shows you the Halo they we put around The liberal democrats even when their policies are flawed.
I think the best thing to do would be to let David Cameron govern with a minority, for all those Conservative sceptics it would either give him a year to prove you wrong before a bi-election, or effectively ensure Conservatives won’t gain power for another generation.