whats hung parliment

[Guest cortinamad-gonetoo]

as title

[banarama]

they all want that treatment if you ask me

[Vista]

a hung parliament is a term used to describe a parliament in which no political party has an outright majority of seats. In the UK this will mean formation of a coalition government comprising of several parties "co-operating"

 

In reality, they normally don't co-operate and spend the whole time infighting trying to get their own agenda to come to the fore and often this forces another general election well before the 5 year parliamentary term is up..................A hung parliament in this election could also leave Gordon Brown in power despite the current likelyhood of his party securing the least votes.

[.pete.]

the winning party has to have at least half of the available seats in Parliament to be the Government. If no party has over half, then it's a hung parliament. Then the current Government has first choice of who to team up with so they can become big enough to have half the seats.

[Mrs O/H/C]

"We dont want/need a hung parliament"

[Stu_B]

Maybe we don't but we're getting one!

 

Imagine if there was no in fighting, somehow only things that were for the good of the country were passed in parliment....

 

...that won't happen but just imagine!

[Guest cortinamad-gonetoo]

how come they can deal ???

[pauln]

how come they can deal ???

 

They always could, its the stupidity of party politics that has one party come up with a bill that the opposition parties will well oppose. All a hung parliament means is that to get a bill through they will have to table a version more acceptable to the opposition. For example a bill to slash public sector spending may have to be ammended to slash it by less.

[Trevmk3]

its a bit like Cricket, you can score more runs but still only draw

[Mk2Jo]

This kind of sums up what the options are now:

 

 

What happens after the election?

 

The election campaign is drawing to a close with all the parties desperate to squeeze as much canvassing as possible into the last few hours.

 

But what happens after the election?

 

Follow this graphic to find out.

 

 

 

[Mrs O/H/C]

Very good Jo

[Mk2Jo]

I got it off the BBC website - I thought it was quite a good explanation as I don't really have much of an idea of the consequences of a hung parliament

[Vista]

This map paints a picture that worries me.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election ... efault.stm

 

Looking at it, MOST of England has come out in support of a Conservative government. But they've largely been held off by not gaining enough seats in Scotland, N.I. and Wales. Countries that all have their own parliaments / national assemblies. So, if there is to be electoral reform does it need to separate voting for the the four nations that make up the U.K. somehow?

[flord escort]

sorry guys i know you are all being serious but i cannot get past the image of bog eyed brown swinging from a rope

and before you all start on me dont forget he let the banks get this country so deep in the red that our grand kids will still paying the debt

[Mk2Jo]

I don't get this either

 

Conservative 302 - 10,592,258 36.2%

Labour 256 - 8,509,376 29.1%

Liberal Democrat 56 - 6,751,786 23.0%

 

The list above shows (in bold) the number of seats won, then the number of votes they actually got and then the % of the vote they got. so .... if the Lib Dems had 6.7 million votes and Labour had 8.5 million ... how come they only got 56 seats when Labour got 256 seats

 

Is this why people want electoral reform so that the actual number of votes cast decides the outcome of the election? Or am I completely confused

[andy a]

The way it currently works all of the seats are different sizes, meaning that although the winning candidate takes their seat in parliament it isn't a true reflection of the national vote, with proportional representation all of the wards would have to be the same size, meaning that each seat would be an equal percentage of the overall vote and the party with the most votes would win, much fairer than the present system.

 

In answer to the statement that the tories covered most of the country most of the bigger geographical seats are very rural with low population compared to the urban and inner city seats with much higher population and therefore a bigger percentage of the voting population within them.

[Mrs O/H/C]

In my opinion...Conservative have won based on them having a higher figure ...why do they make it so confusing and drawn out ?

[andy a]

Because under the present system (originally brought in by the tories ) they need a majority of 116 seats to win, which they dont have.

 

The big problem that Cameron faces now is if the Liberals dont work with him (if for instance they cant agree over proportional representation) and Clegg and chronies wander off and have a deal with Labour to counteract a potential Conservative minority government.

 

If you click on the link provided by Vista and click the button at the bottom of the page to change the view from geographical to proportional you can see how exagerated the map shown is...

[Stu_B]

I don't like the idea of the parties working together! I know they're all cheating lieing politicians just in it for the money, but if you belong to a party & belive in the policies... then how can you 'team' up with an opposing party. Especially a right wing party like the tories bumming left wing LD's!

[andy a]

In principal a hung parliament and parties working together to get the country out of the situation its in should be a brilliant idea if party politics are forgotten, in practice though it will never happen, Cameron is already trying to have a deal with the Lib Dems, the big sticking point being proportional representation.

 

What the Liberals have in effect been offered is places on a committee to discuss the voting system, which was originally offered to them in 1997 anyway, a committee that the Conservatives would ensure would be inaffective and any legislation coming from it (highly unlikely) would take years to come to light as if they gain power at this stage reform would hinder them rather than help them, unlike a quick boundary change which would help them in future elections...

[pauln]

In my opinion...Conservative have won based on them having a higher figure ...why do they make it so confusing and drawn out ?

 

You are quite right the Conservatives have won the most seats but they have not won a majority (they can be outvoted on any bill they put foward). Winning and being able to govern is not the same thing.

I would disagree with Vistas comment that most of england came out in support of the Tories, only about 36% of the population who voted voted for them which of course means 64% of the people who voted do not want the Tories.

[Stu_B]

Yeah I think a hung parliament in principle is definatly the best thing.

Shame they're all a bunch of scrounging toffs who's last interest is the good of the country

[Mk2Jo]

Interesting information everyone, thanks

 

Shame that the other 40% of the eligible voters didn't bother to turn out to vote .... something like 20 million people

[Guest cortinamad-gonetoo]

well we got hung parliment

 

so what will gorden brown do now

 

will he resign or carry on

 

how long before we have a goverment again

 

in 1974 it was hung from feb to oct

[bortaf]

A well hung parliment is one where all the MPs have very little room in thier Y fronts