False Choices

[vampyrefate]

What is the point of this hung parliament / coalition do-hickey if it means we can only have Liberal-Labour coalitions?

Comments

[astatine210]

Whose fault is it that the Tories can't form a coalition? The Tories, their rivals, all of them?

[vampyrefate]

I've no idea whose fault it is, because I'm not involved in the negotiation process; all of which has been undertaken in private with most MPs being quiet, and various unelected people making statements.

Going on the media coverage, I just have more questions...
1) do the negotiators have the mandate from their people to be able to negotiate?
2) was the negotiation between the Conservative and Liberl parties ever going to be anything other than a waste of time?
3) was the Gord always intending to resign as the supreme leader of t' the labour party when he said he'd give the other two parties time to talk?

[astatine210]

1. Absolutely yes. MPs are returned to Parliament to join a debating chamber and hack things out amongst themselves. Negotiation amongst various factions and tendencies should be part of the job - after all, the bigger UK political parties are nothing more than formalised coalitions in the first place.
2. No. In the sort of PR system the Lib Dems have been advocating, the onus is on the biggest party start building a coalition (rather than the incumbent PM's faction, as is the UK precedent). It'd be somewhat hypocritical for the Lib Dems to not let the Tories make the first move.
3. I think your guess is as good as mine.

Putting my cynic's hat on and trying to put myself in the three leaders' positions gives me the following impressions:

• The Lib Dems want to get as much as they want without coming across as too greedy, and I'm not so certain they can actually do that. I suspect they want to shack up with the Tories, but need to make a few overtures to Labour to, er, put the fear of Gord into them. Labour are currently way too publicly "tainted

[vampyrefate]

Sorry, I've not been clear...

For 1), I meant "by their parties" (and not "by the people") - as it is coming across that the liberal and conservative negotiators are having to go back to their parties for approvals. *shrugs*

I noted from the Beeb that now a bunch of Labour MPs are saying that they don't want to be in a coalition anyway; must be the first time a politician has said, "nah, power's not for me..". The world's coming to an end...

[nigelh]

Under the LibDem constitution the leader pretty much has to get the backing of the parliamentary party and the Federal executive before he commits to any "substantial proposal which could affect the party's independence of political action" under a system called the - something which is a hangover from 1998 when there was serious concern in the party that Paddy Ashdown was going to do some kind of deal with Tony Blair.

I doubt there's anything quite that formal in the Conservative constitution but practically Cameron has to sell any deal he hatches to at least the bulk of his MPs.