And Another Thing…

Ross, I have no idea what that is supposed to mean. ‘Unionism’ is a catch-all terms which includes a variety of different political views – both Tom and Anabelle Goldie are ‘Unionists’, but only a blithering idiot would link them semantically together… oh, wait.

Plus, d’you have a link?

Clegg’s party looks like losing MPs, and a hung parliament may mean that Labour (with most MPs) would manage with the support of the Irish and a few others to have a majority for an agreed limited programme for a couple of years, while the Tories and Liberals and Scots Nats would form an opposition on those measures, or some of them.

The Lib-Dems would vote for a positive result from the AV referendum for example.

There are many varieties of hung parliament, not all of them disasterous.

Just as the polls once showed a Tory Landslide, they may well move before the election to a Labour majority of 60. That would make sense, since Labour deserves the same sort of endorsement as last time imho.

1997 General Election

Labour, 43.21% of the popular vote and 63.43% of seat in parliament.

Tories, 30.69% of the popular vote and 25.04% of seats in parliament,

LibDems, 16.76% of the popular vote and 6.98% of seas in parliament.

Hardly democracy in action.

Hi Tom,

I think that your fears are well justified. A hung (or should that be “an hung”) parliament could be the worst possible outcome. I understand that you would naturally wish for your party to win. However, the likelihood is that it won’t and that means that I in a marginal Lib-Con seat have to make a difficult decision. I would rather that the Conservatives have a majority than we have a hung parliament. Even though I’m not convinced.

Labour with the Lib Dems as their lap dogs was a sorry sight for Scotland, for the UK it would be nothing short of a complete and utter disaster.

Happily this will not be happening as we will get the change we need.

Dearie me Mr Harris – it’s a long way to the next election, really! You should stop getting so excited about polls.

A hung parliament looks not improbable, but need not be unworkable – look at the horse trading at Holyrood. Nobody seems to rate Annabel Goldie, but she regularly wrings concessions from the SNP, concessions she would be unlikely to get from a Labour/Lib-dem coalition.

Remember the 1979 Election? This is from the wiki entry on the SNP’s rumbunctious Douglas Henderson -

‘He was instrumental in the SNP’s decision to lay down a censure motion in the House of Commons, criticising the Labour government of James Callaghan after the 1 March 1979 referendum vote on Scottish devolution failed to be approved by the required 40% of the electorate.[2][6] At the time, the Labour government were reliant upon support from the SNP. The motion was carried by one vote on 28 March and Callaghan immediately called the general election which brought the Conservative Party led by Margaret Thatcher to power. Callaghan described the actions of the SNP as “turkeys voting for Christmas”.[6] Henderson lost his seat to Conservative Albert McQuarrie in the 1979 general election by less than 600 votes, and only two MPs from the SNP remained in the new Parliament.[2′

Salmond will be looking to make trouble at Westminster, and will be fairly secure in assuming that he will get more than two MPs at future elections. We well may be heading back to a 1979 situation.

Tom, I dont think you have to fear because David Cameron will have a majority of at least 50. However it would be good to see people like you restore the Labour Party to a party which believes in something rather than just hope by stealing Tory clothes the voters will fall for it.

A coalition government that is more respectful of progressive public opinion (for instance which fights for public services and against overseas military misadventures) would be an improvement on the past 12 years, no?

You’re right, a hung party would be the worst of all solutions…..except for your preferred outcome which is a nightmare of the worst kind…..one you can’t wake up and get out of.

5 more years of the “clunking fist”? How low do you think the economy, pound and bond market can go? You’d find out pretty damn quick as the markets would destroy us within a couple of weeks when all the foreign gilt holders sell up and run like hell as far away from the UK as they can. Loss of our AAA sovereign debt rating would be the least of our worries.

How high can inflation and interest rates get? You find this out as well as we’d be into double figure interest rates before you could say “Greece” or “loan payment default”. Inflation rates would be right up there as well a few months later.

On behalf of your constituents you’d better pray you’re wrong, for if this is the result of the election you’ll find out just how much your party is trusted in the markets of the world.

You might be ok with your taxpayer funded, gold plated pension, but you’ll be one of the few round your neck of the woods. For me that would be my whole life’s savings blown away….and I’ve no time left to rebuild and no nice Resettlement Fund to help me out either.

Look at it this way. A hung parliament would mean that Osborne does not rule the Treasury. Clegg may be a diddy but Vince Cable is not. I want a brake on the Tories policies. I don’t want them to get in full stop, but if they do manage to oust Labour from the pole position I want a check on them.

Going to a more democratic method of voting would stop the more looney of policies, such as all the Tory ones are.

It might not be a bad thing to have to try and get consensus. Would rule out the nutty stuff.

JohnRS: “How high can inflation and interest rates get?”

Well, if you remember the years of Tory government, a hell of a lot higher than they have been at any point in the last 13 years.

“Those unfamiliar with the situation when Labour and the LibDems formed a coalition government at Holyrood should also acquaint themselves with the phrase “the tail wagging the dog”. Because that’s how democratic whatever form of proportional representation forced on the country by the Liberals would be: the party that came third dictating to the biggest party – and the whole country – how it should govern.”

Interesting concept. So when the Scottish Parliament voted 96 for STV, 18 against with 2 abstentions, that was the whole country being dictated to?

Of course, your lot and the Tories like the duopoly created by FPTP, but let’s not have any “moral high ground” posturing from you on it!

Ieuan Wyn Jones for Plaid Cymru claims they forced The 1974 Miners’ Compensation Act from Harold Wilson after the first election that year and dickered with John Major in 1992 over Maastricht when we suffered from a hung Conservative Party.

If there is a hung parliament it may well be a more complex matter than now popularly imagined, and evidently has been in the past.

As a member of the Campaign English Parliament I look forward to a hung parliament with Gordon as PM.The prospect of Scottish and Welsh MP’s marching through the lobbies to impose policies on England only will finally drive home the need for an English Parliament to people in England.

If there were to be a hung parliament after the next election, which is by no means a foregone conclusion, as voters melt away from Dave and the new Caring Compassionate Conservatives, I’m fairly sure that many grassroots Lib Dems will be outraged at the thought of getting into bed with the Tories. Nick Clegg may be forced to make his position clear before the election, and if he indicates a deal with the Tories, or even fails to rule one out, he may lose even more votes.

At Holyrood every vote counts, which gives all parties, including Margo MacDonald, significant influence over the budget. Imagine the nightmare situation if the BNP win a seat, and then offer to support the Tories, or any party that could form a government. Imagine having to make concessions to them in order to govern. Imagine having them on your side!

Imagine if you will what winning in ’92 would have been like.

Kinnock would have gaffed his way into the ERM and the recession. 1 term and no Tony Blair. The Tories could of had another 18 years.

For genuine conservatives (which I consider myself), this is very much like then, I actually would like Labour to continue for a little while longer, let them carry the economic hand grenade they pulled the pin on. Let Cameron either get serious or be replaced by someone that is.

Labour mixed with the Lib Dems in a hung parliament would probably suit us just as well. That is why I am voting Labour.

“Well, if you remember the years of Tory government, a hell of a lot higher than they have been at any point in the last 13 years”

so thats your answer then Tom is it…

look people of Britain look how bad, things were under the tories 13 years ago…

why do you think we would be alot better of under labour, then Tom?

you know i get so utterly bored with listening to the same old political nonsense you people talk.

your party has taken us into the worst recession since world war ii, with the biggest debt…you have taken us into a war that was highly devisive and left us paying billions for, not to forget the loss of life both from our own shores but the iraqis themselves.

you give us a prime minister that has no mandate and then inflict on us 2 years of internal squabbling as he buffoons his way through a job he is quite clearly not equipped to do.

what about our gold, the referendum on europe you promised us?

the explosion of knife crime…pathetically leanient sentencing…immigration so out of control we have been forced to change our british identity to put up with your goverments continual denials and statements “that it is good for our economy” and woe be tide anyone who criticizes it for thee shall be burned at the stake…

i could go on, trust me i could go on and on…

expenses…your leader did nothing to resolve the expenses last year and then thought it wise to deal with it via his “freakshow” youtube appearance…how pathetically out of touch that sounds and looks now.

no we would not be better of under labour nor would we better of under the tories…but we would be rid of the self regarding, self serving labour party whose only interest is in itself.

i mean even your real leader (meddlesome) wasn’t even elected and yet brown the unelected one goes on about how the tories want to keep inherited titles…what a joke!

you are a nice man Tom a decent fella but please do not try to preach to us about how better we would be under the labour party

we would better if this entire parliament was dissolved asap and the people of this country had the chance to have its say on whats best for us…you lot had your chance and unfortunately for the majority of you, you got caught literally with your fingers in the till.

n.b. i do not include you tom in any wrong doings in the expenses scandal.

the day a politican puts his country before him/herself is the day i start bothering to listen to you all again.

except for you tom because it at least you try…but please dont ruin it all by going on about the tories all the time..its so hollow mate really it is.

I really can’t find any sympathy for the current Government, and do hope it’s wiped out and then the party eats itself, leaving men like Tom emerging in 2012, blinking in the sunlight and getting to work with repairs.

No pleasing some people by:

21% increase in GDP/head, leaving us in third place behind the USA & Canada in the G20.

Combatting WMD rogue states (and the possible terrorist spinoffs) like Libya, Iraq, N Korea & Iran according to circumstances.

Lowest rate of basic Income Tax for a century (at least).

Introduction of Tax Credits, which even Chameleon and Osborne say they intend to keep. Other benefits likewise. A Real Welfare state as per Lloyd-George, Beveridge, Bevan & Brown.

Vastly improved NHS with waiting lists such that John Major might only have dreamt of. (While checking cones for his hotline perhaps? Or privatising the railways?)

Britain at the forefront of international affairs such as fighting the international recession, avoiding the depression the Tories would have plunged us into, taking leads on global warming, aid for Africa, Haiti . . .

And the two best PMs since Attlee.

The last hung parliament covered the era known as the winter of discontent; the last thing we need is a repeat and end up taking our begging bowl to the IMF.