British Elections
 

The Conservatives picked up a ton of seats but not enough for a majority. That means a coalition government will be necessary.

The "wild card" here is the Liberal Democratic Party. If they enter into a coalition with the Conservatives that would constitute a majority but the Lib Dems are a center-left party so philosophically they're more aligned with Labour.

But a Labour/Lib Dem coalition, perhaps the most likely scenario, wouldn't yield a majority so it would be necessary to attract several of the minority parties like the Greens and the SDLP and a few more besides.

But Nick Clegg, the leader of the Lib Dems, has said that he would basically give the party winning the most seats first shot at wooing his support.

Meanwhile, since no single party has a majority, Gordon Brown is still PM.

So, what do you guys think? Will anyone be able to put together a coalition or will Brown have to call for new elections in a couple of months?

John

Well the interesting thing in a parliamentary system is that a minority party can rule buy proposing legislation that the rest will have to support or else the government folds and another election is called.

Had something along those lines back in 1926 in Canada when MacKenzie King (Liberal) was faced with a scandal and asked the GG to call an election. Lord Byng, the GG said no and insisted that Arthur Meighan (conservative) by given a chance to form a government (this was his prerogative but pissed off a lot of Canadians). It turned out that Meighan could not form a government and the election was called. King went on to become PM twice after that and was PM at the outbreak of WW II. That affair quite possibly led to the aftermath where the role of GG became little more than a figurehead. Prior to Byng the GGs acquiesed whenevr they were asked to dissolve the government and call an election, any more than the Queen rules GB.

The Canadian Governor Generalship seems an odd sort of thing. The title makes me think it's probably a remnant of the government of New France. Is it? I wonder how it came to persist under English rule. Now it seems that the Governor General is more or less the Queen's representative in Canada, a figurehead of a figurehead.

John

AFAIK it was a British thing but who knows, after Wolfe defeated the French on the Plains of Abraham Lord Drummond in settling things allowed the French in Quebec to keep the Napoleonic Code for civil law but had the great good sense to use the English Criminal Code. This made for some interesting civil arrangements for anyone living in Quebec.

For example, in settling a mortgage you went before a notary public. He/she would make it abundently clear that his/her task was to ensure that both sides understood their legal positions, as one told me"My job is to represent the law and to be sure you understand your rights and responsibilties".

Of course the other thing Drummond did was to make the country bilingual.

How "left" was Labour? Tony Blair was as much of a warmonger as any Conservative that has come before. He also, wisely for once, pushed hard for large new aircraft carriers. But he also bankrupted his country with his military commitments around the world. Blair was as neo-con as any of Bushs gang.

Several of my British cousins used to call him Pinocchio.:D