JMP on the British General Election.
In regard to the British General Election.
I left Great Britain 34 years ago, so what the heck do I know! Here are my guesses.
1. The election is indeed hung.
2. The Tory party received the largest number of votes cast, and has won the most seats.
3. The Tories are way short of a parliamentary majority.
4. The Liberal-Democrat party had a less than hoped for number of votes, and lost one parliamentary seat.
5. The Labour party lost many parliamentary seats, but did not receive the expected “knock-out- blow”.
6. Far right parties (The British National Party and the United Kingdom Independence Party) did not attract more than 5% of the vote, and did not win any parliamentary seats.
7. Those parties (B.N.P. and UKIP) lost seats at the local government level (City and County Councils).
8. The Labour Party actually gained seats at this local government level.
9. I suggest that the election was not so much a repudiation of Labour, as it was a black eye for the Labour Leader, Gordon Brown and his predecessor Tony Blair.
10. The Conservatives (Tories) should indeed be asked to form a government on the basis of (2) above.
11. They can only do this with the support of Liberal-Democrats, unless they are willing to form a minority government.
12. Is a Conservative/Liberal-Democrat alliance viable given Conservative Euro-scepticism and Liberal-Democrat Euro-enthusiasm?
13. Will Labour be tempted to form an alliance with the Lib-Dems in order to hang on to power?
14. Would the Lib-Dems be interested in such an alliance if Labour promised to move the electoral process towards proportional representation ( a Lib-Dem priority)
15. Will the British electorate get fiercely angry if Labour and the Lib-Dems form such an alliance?
There is my 2 cents worth. British readers - please correct my analysis where you disagree with it!
I understand that a) Gordon Brown has offered to have a Referendum on Electoral reform should the Lib.Dems. enter an alliance with (New)New Labour, also there is a move to have the James Bond actor Daniel Craig as the new Party leader so we would have a "Well Hung" Parliament.
ReplyDeleteIncidently, it has recently come to light that the Jock Strap was invented by Alfred Hitchcock