Red, Yellow or Blue?
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It's good to know that we are not alone with our screwed up election system, I also would like to see the elimination of our Electoral college system, but alas that will never happen as if it did then the Republicans would never see the white house again.
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If its hung, the queen doesn't just get to choose who takes over?
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@chris fullmer said:
If its hung, the queen doesn't just get to choose who takes over?
No, under the UK constitution [for what it's worth] when ther is no party with a clear majority of seats [currently 326] the incumbent prime-minister must first try to form a government by agreement [or coalition] with other parties = Labour+LibDems - which would give them a working majority in parliament > the Conservatives.
If he fails [and he doesn't resign earlier] then there is the 'Queen's Speech' on 25 May which could effectively be a vote of no confidence and he then must resign.
When he resigns the party with the most seats otherwise must try to make a government - this would mean the Conservative leader becoming prime-minister, he has a minority of seats. He could try to make a 'minority government', where he would have to cut back his plans and/or make deals with other parties on a one-off basis to get legislation passed. Or he could also seek to make a deal with other parties - LibDems or perhaps DUP from Ulster to give him a small majority too...
All in all a mess !Also I don't know if you heard that there's going to be an inquiry - about hundreds of people being denied a vote - in several big cities polling stations had queues over one and a half-hours long and at 10pm if you are not inside they must lock the doors, if you are inside and haven't been handed a ballot-paper before the deadline you can't vote and you must leave ! This was despite the fact that the turn-out was typically only 60%. This system is over 130 years old and has never broken before ! Some polling stations even ran out of ballot-papers or had out of date voters' lists. UK=third-world soonest !!!
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I don't think a Labour + LibDem coalition would have a majority either!
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Been following the fallout on Sky on and off today. Looks to me that we will see a ConLib deal being struck. Also the bookies think this is what will happen and those guys are normally right.
PR is a fair system and it looks like the British public will have to vote on it fairly soon. Hey, join the club! Most of Europe operates this system and it works most of the time.
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.... just watching Cameron talking on Sky. No mention of a PR referendum on the table ... yet! He will have to put this on the table if he wants to live in No.10
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I'd love to be a fly on the wall while they negotiate in some back room.
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As it turned out by the time all of the results were in this afternoon Lab+Lib-Dems still doesn't give Gordon Brown a full majority - but with a few minority parties added in and some NI parties never attending Westminster it might just work... BUT in a twist the Conservatives are courting the Lib-Dems first, with Labour saying they'll speak with anyone to try and resolve this impasse [please!].
We live in interesting times... -
This may require a new poll with only two choices: orange or green
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go blue wooooooooooo!
lol did anyone else see the value of the £ instantly drop as soon as gordon brown announced he was going to stay in power? (within a minute it dropped by a cent)
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david cameron is now officially prime minister!
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Was watching BBC last night, looks like a love fest over there, the Lib-cons are lovey-dovey, optimistic and giddy with each other...wonder how long this will last?
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@solo said:
Was watching BBC last night, looks like a love fest over there, the Lib-cons are lovey-dovey, optimistic and giddy with each other...wonder how long this will last?
'Weeks' - at least... but we do have five years to go !
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@unknownuser said:
looks like a love fest over there
i know, how sweet. do you think they share a bunk bed?
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@olishea said:
@unknownuser said:
looks like a love fest over there
i know, how sweet. do you think they share a bunk bed?
Well don't forget they are both Public School educated .....
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haha prick so am I.
so because their parents paid for their education they must be gay, right? idiot
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And anyone who votes labour is an idiot.
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I just caught up on this whole thread and it's been an interesting discussion from the viewpoint of a liberal (small "l") Yank.
First, it's been hard to keep track of the colo(u)rs. On this side of the pond, throughout the Bush years there were "Blue States" and "Red States" ever since the presidential election of 2000, when all the TV networks used the same colors: blue for Democrats, red for Republicans.
That distinction of which states went which way, who was a Red State and who was a Blue State, was particularly important thanks to Bush/Cheney "Democratic Theory" as I heard it articulated by John Bolton (Bush's appointee to the U.N. who thought the U.N. should be abolished), "You are only responsible to the people who voted for you". When Bolton said that, even the interviewer dropped his jaw, but it was clear to me that was the way the Bush administration operated. That attitude made Which states were Red and which Blue an important distinction, so Blue for Conservative keeps glitching for me.
Second, the party philosophies. Someone described the British Conservative Party as being like the American Republican Party with a bit of Socialism thrown in. That's been even harder to keep straight than the colors because to at least the vocal Republicans, "Socialism" is a an obsenity. One prominent Republican Congresswoman, Michelle Bachmann, even went so far as to say publicly about a year ago that there should be an investigation to determine who in Congress were anti-American Socialists. I saw the interview where she said it. I also saw her denial two days later that she ever said anything like that, and then saw her say something similar a couple of months later.
So to me, describing a political philosophy as being like the American Republican Party with a bit of Socialism is as contradictory as describing a musical style as being like Bach harpsichord with a bit of heavy metal. It may be accurate, but it's hard to imagine without the experience.
Just observations, with a bit of opinion, here in the Corner Bar.
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@unknownuser said:
And anyone who votes labour is an idiot.
exactly, especially after what we've just been through. but each to their own i suppose.
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I should have added a massive dollop of sarcasm with that.
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