Interesting Links for 05-02-2015

[andrewducker]

• Scottish Labour is going down in flames - and taking Miliband’s chance of a majority with them (Yay!)
  (tags: Scotland Labour politics )
• Scientists pledge to increase interference with the Church
  (tags: science religion funny )
• Sir John Chilcot refuses to set date for end of marathon inquiry into the Iraq war
  (tags: enquiry Iraq )
• No, more

Comments

[gonzo21]

Labour may not win elections from the Left, but it's sure as hell looking like they're not going to win this from the Right.

[andrewducker]

Yup - the question is whether they'd win more seats if they were further left - they'd pick some up, and lose some, and presumably they think they'd lose more than they'd gain.

Of course, given a purely proportional voting system, we'd be getting a right-coalition with 49% (35% Con, 14% UKIP) and a 49% left-coalition (35% Lab, 14% Lib+Green*). That would be...interesting.

Bearing in mind that people would undoubtedly vote differently under a proportional system, of course :->

*Different companies are showing different amounts for both LibDem and Green, but they generally add up to about 14%.

[gonzo21]

Yeah, I can only assume they made the same determination they've made every GE, that the hardcore Left will continue to vote Labour no matter what, and they're free to continue appealing to the right for those crucial Middle-England marginals

[a_pawson]

Not in Scotland - no. But they have presumably calculated they will win far more English seats by sticking to the centre-right than they will by moving to the left to appease Scottish voters. There's a long way to go until May, but the polls are suggesting Milliband will most likely be the next PM, so he isn't going to change tactics now.

[danieldwilliam]

Doctor Who generic lego already existed.

The same company licensed Scooby Doo.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Cyberman-Conversion-Chamber/dp/B0055RDBX6

[kalimac]

True that legally the government remains in office until it resigns, but that avoids the question of, why does it resign? If the Tories lose seats, even if they remain the largest party, they'll have lost whatever moral authority the current government has, and pressure, plus past precedent, suggests they'll resign, especially if third parties express a greater willingness to work with Labour.

[danieldwilliam]

I disagree

[kalimac]

I specified that. The first thing I wrote was, "True that legally the government remains in office until it resigns."

But that ignores actual practice. Your evocation of the idea of a vote of confidence to sort out the situation after an election shows this; such a vote at that point has become obsolete. The principle that a government shouldn't resign after an election until it's proven loss of support through such a vote was abandoned in 1868, and the last time a government went through the motions of it was in 1923-4. Every other hung Parliament, and every loss of a government at an election, since those days has been worked out before Parliament met. Indeed, Cameron in 2010 actually accepted appointment as PM while negotiations with the LDs were still going on; as recently as Home in 1963, a prospective PM would only undertake to see if he could form a government until he had enough supporters signed on the dotted line.

[naath]

Two or more possible governments - to be a useful government they need >50% of MPs (who actually take up their seats) to be on-side; so if you have >1 possibility (that could actually be a functioning government) it is because you think that some MPs might go either (or any) way - I think that a party in that position wouldn't simply go with "we'll give the Conservatives a chance first because they are currently in charge" but would instead make up their collective minds about who they *actually prefer*, possibly after some negotiation (I think essentially only the LDs are in the position of "probably going to have some MPs" and "might form coalition with Con or Lab", everyone else having a clearly stated preference already

Butter Crisis

[danieldwilliam]

Norway is in the European Free Trade Association and the European Economic Area.

I had not realised that agriculture was excluded from those free trade areas.

[elfy]

The link about germany is interesting. It's good to read such stuff viewed from "the outside". I sometimes wonder how germany managed to be where it is now - especially after WWII. Or was it because of it and because the US helped a lot afterwards (did they?). I probably had all that in school and/or could look it up, but ... yeah.

[andrewducker]

If you find out more, let us know!