Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[lashmar]

Crap...this might be a problem for us.

We had our election yesterday and we have no winner...we have a Hung Parliament. Our system is completely broken though, I'll show you why:

The Tories got a share of 36.2% of the vote and they have (at the moment) 299 out of a potential 650 MP's.
Labour got 29.2% of the votes and they have (at the moment) 254 out of a potential 650 MP's
Lib-Dem's got 22.9% of the votes and they have (at the moment) 54 out of a potential 650 MP's

How the hell does a party get 6.3% less votes and only have 54 MP's! It's a joke and it shouldn't be that way. This election isn't what the people asked for...they got 1/4 of the votes and only 1/10 of the seats!

Unlike Europe we don't have Hung Parliaments often (we've had 4 in the last 100 years) and at this moment in time this is disastrous. This will effect our already damaged economy simply because things will not get done very quickly. Rather than a government creating legislation and then passing it with a majority in the House of Commons...now what will happen is the government will create Legislation, they will then have to get approval from the third Party, then it will go into the Commons and even then there is another step...the government then have to barter with the third party to vote YES on the legislation.

It's an absolute mess and it's a terrible situation for us to be in at this moment in time.


This is the result's by the way:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/

[Day_Tripper]

The Scots are mostly liberal-democrats?  That kinda surprises me.  Do they get lots of welfare up there?  I used to respect Scots, I may have to change my mind on that one.

So, explain this to me.  Your Parliament is supposed to be representative of the percent of people voting for them?  For example, if 1/3 of the people voted conservative, then there should be 1/3rd conservative party people in Parliament, is that correct?

Since we're not a democracy and we have an electoral college who votes for us, I'm not really sure how a democracy like yours works.   

[lashmar]

The Scots are mostly liberal-democrats?

If you switch it to Proportional view rather than Geographical you'll see it's mainly labour up there, the switch is on the bottom right of the map. The Lib Dems have 7 seats up there, the SNP (scottish money-grabbing-bastards-who-should-be-shot-on-site...party) have 6 and the rest is labour.

Do they get lots of welfare up there?  I used to respect Scots, I may have to change my mind on that one.

Yes they get a lot. We're in a situation now where the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish are getting so much money it's basically only England who's pulling the UK our of rescission. The they all get most things free though; they all get free prescriptions at the expense of the English ; they all get free hospital car parking (we have to pay £7 for 3 hours to fund that); the Scots get completely free educations; the scots get £3000 more per person than England as well...and yet out of all this there are more welfare claimers in Scotland than there are in England!!! It's a joke, this union is one way traffic nowadays.

The Scots are spongers...the welsh aren't too far behind them either. I think they get a free parliament as well but I'm not sure...I know the Scottish MP's that sit in the Scottish Parliament get their MP's Expenses paid for by Westminster (basically England).

So, explain this to me.  Your Parliament is supposed to be representative of the percent of people voting for them?  For example, if 1/3 of the people voted conservative, then there should be 1/3rd conservative party people in Parliament, is that correct?

No. Our system is ran of the "First Past the Post" system...basically it's possible for the party with the most votes not to be in government, I think it happened in the 2005 election as well.

At the 1997 national election, the Liberal Democrats gained 16.8% of the votes but only got 46 seats. The Tories gained 30.7% of the votes but gained 165 seats. Labour won 43.2% of the votes and gained 419 seats. At a proportionate level, the Liberal Democrats should have got around 106 seats in Westminster if their representation was based on similar support for the Labour Party.

In the 2001 election, the Lib Dems got 52 seats and 19% of the total votes cast. Using the most basic form of proportional representation, 19% of votes cast would equate to about 120 seats in Parliament. 

More in this:

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/first_past_the_post.htm

In this election it is possible (although unlikely) for labour to finish 3rd and still be in power. Many people like the idea of Proportional representation and, to an extent, so do I...I just don't understand how it will work. At this moment in time a constituency has 80,000 people living in it and they are local, we have a local MP in the commons and we can make him bring up issues in the House if we wish, but with Proportional representation I don't know if we'll have a local MP...I don't understand how that part of it works and it's rather confusing because we don't really have it in this country and it's completely different.

I would much rather it be kept the same to be honest because at least then we wont have hung Parliaments like the rest of Europe. They're not good for any country simply because of the uncertainty it creates. With a Coalition government there has to be a lot of back-room deals before anything gets presented to the House let alone voted though...because of that uncertainty it makes the Budget harder to pass therefor the financial market loses there stability because it's so uncertian weather or not the Budget will be passes...because of that Bonds (basically government shares but they're a lot safer) are harder to sell, because Bonds are harder to sell the country might go down on the credit rating (the UK is currently at the top level, AAA, but it looks as if we're going to go down to an AA) and the country has to pay an extra 2% interest for every rating below AAA it goes.

Because the government have to pay more interests the people will as well so it's going to make it very hard for people to get loans their for the housing market will stagnate again so there is an outside chance we'll go into another downturn but this time we'll have the added problem of a worse credit rating as a nation.

Long story short...it's bad news for us.


The Graphic at the bottom of this explains what's going to happen quite well:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8670411.stm

[lashmar]

Brown Steps down as Labour Party leader!

We had a very eventful day today.

First off it was reveled that the Lib Dems were in secret conversation with the Labour party about forming a coalition-government over the weekend while they were talking to the Tory party.

The second, and most important news, is that Brown has stepped down as Labour party leader and he will leave his post sometime before the Party Conference Season in October. It seems to be a demand from the Lib Dems as well which is very, very interesting. This has blown everything into the air now but I think we will end up with a Tory Minority government by late this week.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8672859.stm

[lashmar]

Gordon Brown steps down as PM after 13 years in government. David Cameron is the new PM with Nick Clegg

Gordon Brown is out and he leaves after 13 years in the Labour Government. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer for 10 years, longer than anyone before, and PM for 3 years.   

After lengthy meeting, one of which lasted 7 hours, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats are in the final stages of forming a coalition government. David Cameron is the new PM and it's very likely Nick Clegg will be the Deputy PM.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8675265.stm

[lashmar]

I have mixed emotions about Brown leaving. A part of me is happy because he was an incompetent fool who couldn't get his point across but another party of me feels incredibly sorry for him. He became PM and within one month we had a Terrorist Attack, half the west country was under water because of the floods and we had Blue Tongue sweep across the farms in the country...basically he got hit with a lot of shit before he could get to his feet.

His major mistake, and in my mind the first nail in the coffin, was when he didn't call an election straight after Blair left. At the time the Tories were everywhere, the Lib Dems were the joke party, the Global Rescission hadn't yet hit and terrorism hadn't yet hit the country. If he called an election right then he would have won it comfortably and possibly increased his majority but he didn't because one poll showed the Tories might have won more seats...because of that one slip up he basically resigned himself to this.

It's going to be interesting to see how this will work out now. The Conservatives are, clearly, right-wing and the Lib Dems are left of Labour...I can't see this lasting more than 2 1/2 years to be honest because the two parties are at opposite ends of the scale.

This will also be the first time the Lib Dems have sat in the cabinet since the War Cabinet in WWII. I really hope Nick Clegg does well to be honest.

[Day_Tripper]

http://www.blinkx.com/watch-video/the-who-won-get-fooled-again/8e6oT8BZZcOz87pPTX2ecQ