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It is a secret Ballot, so the ruling party members hopefully vote with the best interests of the country in mind.

Its called a Vote of no Confidence for a reason - it is designed for the worst of circumstances.

I'm not sure whether it has to be a majority either, possibly less than 50% is needed. I'm not entirely sure though.

Dastardly Dave wrote:It is a secret Ballot, so the ruling party members hopefully vote with the best interests of the country in mind.

Wait these are politicans voting right?

Indeed. We can only hope.

Then, er who guards the guards?

Then, er who guards the guards?

Obvious.

Ethereals, Spirit Hosts, Tomb Banshees.

UK Parliament is full of Vampire Counts, the truth revealed.

I personally think Cameron should break off negotiations with the Lib Dems - let them try to form their 'progressive alliance' with Labour. What Labour is trying to do is an unseemly, desperate attempt to cling on to power. I wouldn't be surprised if Mandelson had a major hand in these back-room deals - he's a fething snake and they are his speciality.
Let them try it - the public will turn on them in a major way (and I believe it could get VERY ugly...), there will be another General Election within months which the Tories will win by an absolute landslide, and Labour and the Lib Dems will spend years in the wilderness.

An excellent point, but are you prepared to see the country go ed balls up all around you just to see Labour and the Lib Dems humiliated?

Besides, if the Conservatives play their cards wrong ONCE during that period, the entire electorate will be completely dissallusioned (even more than they are now).

It will ruin politics completely if the conservatives slip up, and it'll be a risk. It all depends whether they manage to toe the line. I'm not even considering what would happen if the Lib-Lab alliance actually worked. (which it won't, in all probability)

Dastardly Dave wrote:An excellent point, but are you prepared to see the country go ed balls up all around you just to see Labour and the Lib Dems humiliated?

Besides, if the Conservatives play their cards wrong ONCE during that period, the entire electorate will be completely dissallusioned (even more than they are now).

It will ruin politics completely if the conservatives slip up, and it'll be a risk. It all depends whether they manage to toe the line. I'm not even considering what would happen if the Lib-Lab alliance actually worked. (which it won't, in all probability)

Whoever comes into power has a major gak storm to deal with. It will get worse no matter who is in Downing St. I would rather see an unstable alliance of 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc.-placed parties come in and try to fix it, fail horribly and take the blame, destroying their credibility for the forseeable future, than Cameron inherit this nightmare with one arm tied behind his back. With Labour/Lib Dem credibility shot to pieces this would probably mean that the Tories would come in with a very strong majority and be able to put long term measures in place to deal with our debt.

Another election is a given. Any coalition would have a slight majority (Lib-Lab would have a 38 majority at best).

Perhaps, but as always: we shall see, and whatever happens, we'll be paying for it.

This is politicians we are talking about, of course it is the regular people who will get shafted

Politicians are reflections of the electorate.

dogma wrote:Politicians are reflections of the electorate.

Whilst that is true, I think it is sad that they reflect the bad apparently more so than the good, with petty bickering, greed and so on overshadowing any good they achieve.

Politicians should be held to higher standards than your ordinary "man in the street". They are not supposed to be looking out for no 1, they are supposed to be helping their fellow countrymen, weilding the power of the nation to their best advantage - not voting themselves more money, taking money from the tax payers they are not owed, and a plethora of other acts which have resulted in the current high disregard for politicians that I think many people now feel towards the establishment.

Frazzled wrote:

filbert wrote:Start putting your money on a Lib / Lab coalition folks. The biggest obstacle to this was Gordon Brown, and now he has been 'removed', the deal is on. Looks like the 3 days talks with the Tories yielded nothing and we are set to end up with a minority government. I don't think the Lib / Lab coalition can scrape together enough seats for a majority - they would need the support of Plaid Cymru, the SNP, Greens and SDLP for a majority.

Welcome to weak and ineffectual government. Expect votes of no confidence and a recalled election with ~6 months.

How does that work FB? If the coaltion has the majority votes, would they be the ones to call the vote? It would not be in their interest to call a vote. Who call a vote and what are the conditions?

Ach so confusing. You need a right and proper fixed election with specified terms!

I logged off after my earlier post last night, so I missed your response Frazzled. This has already been semi-explained by others but further to the answers given; basically, as a result of the election in which no single party has a majority, we are left with 3 main options.

1. A Cons / Lib coalition government - probably the most stable option given that they would hold a majority. Potential to fall is also possible given that Cons / Libs disagree over many fundamentals.

2. A Lib / Lab coalition - less likely, given that the Lib hierarchy have made it clear they have a distaste for being seen to prop up a failed government against the wishes of a large portion of the electorate but possible given that Libs are ideologically closer to the Labour party. Potential to fail - quite high as a Lib / Lab alliance on it's own would not command a majority and would require the voting support of SDLP, Plaid Cymru, SNP as well so the potential for squabbling is increased.

3. A Cons minority government - an 'if all else fails' option. If coalition talks fail, Cons would have the chance to form a minority government as they have the most seats. Potential to fail - high; minority governments never last long.

Even a coalition government with a majority has quite a high potential for disaster especially one with a very narrow majority. There is a large section of the Libs who are vehemently anti-Tory and opposed to making deals with them; they would see a vote of no confidence as a way of expressing their distaste and collapsing the government.

As I mentioned earlier, I see a Lab / Lib deal on the cards, I expect this to be swiftly followed by a collapse in the House of Commons as the fragile alliance will not be able to muster support effectively. In turn, we will then see another election. I can only see this damaging the Liberal party for the somewhat sneaky and underhand way that they have been talking to Labour and making deals with them 'behind the scenes' so to speak. It's all very grubby and a shadow of things to come if we ever move to PR voting systems.

There we go, thank goodness for that:

The BBC wrote:
BREAKING NEWS

Number 10 recognises that talks with the Lib Dems have not and will reach not any positive conclusion, and they are now discussing the method of declaring that their side of the negotiation is over, BBC Radio 5 Live's political correspondent Jon Pienaar says.

Now it all hinges on whether the Conservatives/Liberals can avoid failing and get this country sorted.

Apparantly as well, somebody's belongings are being removed from No 10.

Clearly Brown got too far into debt and the Baliffs had to come and take his shirts.

Interesting news indeed - I am surprised that Labour were so quick to break off negotiations. Mind you, there has been a lot of scuttlebutt over the Lib Dems using their coalition value to hold the Cons and Labour to ransom over various policy matters - maybe Labour decided it wasn't worth the concessions?

If a lib/lab pact could hold together long enough to reform the voting system that would do me


If not then maybe conservative minority gov

loki old fart wrote:If a lib/lab pact could hold together long enough to reform the voting system that would do me

Really you haven't a clue. The reforms you are thinking of (PR) will guarantee EVERY election is a hung parliament. 'Reform' isnt a magic word that sets all wrongs right.

Ninjaed by Orlanth!

I dread to think of having this sort of chaos, back handed and sly dealings and general grubbiness every time we have an election in the UK.

PR would be a terrible idea for the UK electoral system without a major sea change in the mindset of politicians and the populace, mmkay?

Sounds like PR is out an AV is in. Hurrah!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8506306.stm

Alternative vote is another Lib Dem backed idea, not for the sake of the nation but because it benefits them.

Fact of the matter is that central parties only benefit because the second place vote will go to a central party candidate.

Our elected major is a Lib Dem, to ensure she stays in power she instituted an AV electoral system for Watford. Now we cannot get rid of her. Admittedly she would have narrowly won on the first round of voting, but that was fair, that was people voting for her. Then when the third place candidate was removed the minor victory turned into a landslide, Tories and Labour supporters will nto vote for each other, that much is logical. Had she lost the first round she would have still won by an landslide even though the support was from candidates who actually voted Labour.

AV is no fairer, in fact it is less fairer as your second choice candiddate is not your choice of who runs the country/town or whatever, so its hardly necessary. It is there to benefit Lid Dems and Lid Dems only. People talk about how unfair it is that lib dems have 20% of the vote but a much smaller % of the seats, given AV and they will still have 20% of the real vote and landslides in every elecrtion of the seats. Not from people voting FOR them, but against the third place choice. You will in one swoop guarantee a majority government supported and run by the smallest party in terms of genuine support. A monumentous monolithic feth up that would be, and there would be NO WAY BACK. Do you think a Lid Dem government with a jerrymandered majority of 150 with only 20% of the real vote) will vote to reverse this? If you think so perhaps you still think New Labour was the answer to sleaze and Gordon Brown was the economic mastermind.

Of course Lid Dems will want a vote on giving us AV as part of any deals. Give that to them, then say no in the vote. It is in the interests of both the Conservatives and Labour to knock this one on the head.

Local first place post is the best system, like all electoral systems it has its rules, some benefit some do not as far as candidates go, but the populace always benefits as its the closest you get to adhering to the wishes of the populace.

Lib Dems, jerrymander different.

Dastardly Dave wrote:There we go, thank goodness for that:

The BBC wrote:
BREAKING NEWS

Number 10 recognises that talks with the Lib Dems have not and will reach not any positive conclusion, and they are now discussing the method of declaring that their side of the negotiation is over, BBC Radio 5 Live's political correspondent Jon Pienaar says.

Now it all hinges on whether the Conservatives/Liberals can avoid failing and get this country sorted.

Apparantly as well, somebody's belongings are being removed from No 10.

Clearly Brown got too far into debt and the Baliffs had to come and take his shirts.

Gentlemen, Britain is weak and confused. They have no functioning government. Now is the time to strike. Cry havoc! Let slip the dogs of War!

Then Weinare all doomed.

Seriously though, I think that Liberal 'talks' with labour may have just been a ploy to get the Conservatives to grovel a bit more. Now the Conservatives will be held to their 'promises' to the Liberals to form an Alliance.

This from the BBC:

The Beeb wrote:The BBC's business editor Robert Peston says he has learned some of the likely elements of a joint Con-Lib economic and business policy. The £6bn of spending cuts promised this year by the Tories would go ahead, unless the economy were to dramatically weaken. The Tories would also adopt the Lib Dem plan to increase the tax-free allowance on income tax to £10,000. A meaningful initial rise in the allowance would come quickly, with a clear timetable announced to get to the full £10,000.

I think everyone knew that a Lib-Lab coalition would never have worked, it would just have been too weak.

Orlanth wrote:Our elected major is a Lib Dem, to ensure she stays in power she instituted an AV electoral system for Watford. Now we cannot get rid of her. Admittedly she would have narrowly won on the first round of voting, but that was fair, that was people voting for her.

All Mayoral elections in the UK use this system, it wasn't instituted by your Mayor. It can produce some pretty weird results if turnout is low, check the last result for Doncaster.

There we go... He's just made a statement that he is resigning as leader of the Labour Party with immediate effect. He is currently heading to the palace to dissolve the government and will reccomend that the new one is headed by David Cameron.

I think the speech sounded like a very difficult one to make, and he sounded quite weary. He was admitting defeat, and he knew the labour party could not possibly hold onto power.

An end of an Era, perhaps...

Ladies and Gentleman we have a new PM!

Lord-Loss wrote:Ladies and Gentleman we have a new PM!

Uh oh.

Its about time, take a hammer to the public sector Dave, make us strong again!

mattyrm wrote:Its about time, take a hammer to the public sector Dave, make us strong again!

First thing to go should be the military. Useless pile of fethers, and think of the money that could be spent on stealing children's milk!