After Election Stalemate

grubby23

Hi

As most of us know, it seems a hung parliament is the most likely outcome on Thursday. Assume that the Tories are just short of a majority with lets say 320 seats while Labour and the Libdem have together less than 300 seats. Is it possible that Labour and the Libdems can form a minority government although they have less seats than the torries?

I am just scared, that Labour could still make it into the government, would welcome a libdem & Tories coalition if this is somehow possible

Generali

grubby23 wrote: »

Hi

As most of us know, it seems a hung parliament is the most likely outcome on Thursday. Assume that the Tories are just short of a majority with lets say 320 seats while Labour and the Libdem have together less than 300 seats. Is it possible that Labour and the Libdems can form a minority government although they have less seats than the torries?

I am just scared, that Labour could still make it into the government, would welcome a libdem & Tories coalition if this is somehow possible

Yes it is possible. AIUI, the Prime Minister (who is still Gordon Brown although he has no Government at present) gets the first shot at producing a Government, that is to say he has to be able to convince The Queen that he can get a Budget through Parliament. If he can't do that then the leader of the biggest group gets the next shot and so it goes on. He might get informal support from Scots and/or Welsh Nats or even a short-term agreement from the Tories that they would support an emergency budget in the interests of the country.

If no group can form a Government then The Queen calls fresh elections.

DaddyBear

Exciting stuff. Thursday is going to be very interesting indeed.

dealsearcher

Yes the biggest danger is that Gordon Brown, a lame duck PM, goes to the Queen to form a new government with the Liberals in tow. The Conservatives would get pushed aside, despite possibly actually getting the largest vote.

Pennywise

Gordon won't give in. He's so deluded that he'll try to stumble on and will make all kinds of dangerous deals with other parties to try to cling onto power. He's waited too long to become PM and has been there so short a time (though it seems longer!) that he won't give up without a fight, whatever the damage caused to the country in the process.

grubby23

Well there would be something good in having Gordon Brown again as Prime Minister for another 5 years: we could be absolutely sure that the country is doomed and its time to get the hell out of it

But it seems to me quite unlikely that Labour, Libdems plus some small party form a coalition, that would guarantee a fresh election very soon!

StevieJ

DaddyBear wrote: »

Exciting stuff. Thursday is going to be very interesting indeed.

Friday more so, I am also at the races, at last chance to live it up :beer:

StevieJ

grubby23 wrote: »

Well there would be something good in having Gordon Brown again as Prime Minister for another 5 years: we could be absolutely sure that the country is doomed and its time to get the hell out of it

But it seems to me quite unlikely that Labour, Libdems plus some small party form a coalition, that would guarantee a fresh election very soon!

Why do you think that Labour and LibDems will not have a majority between them?

pingu2209

Pennywise wrote: »

Gordon won't give in. He's so deluded that he'll try to stumble on and will make all kinds of dangerous deals with other parties to try to cling onto power. He's waited too long to become PM and has been there so short a time (though it seems longer!) that he won't give up without a fight, whatever the damage caused to the country in the process.

Sadly I agree with your view. It is terrible that a party with fewer votes can still get in. I have a horrible, horrible thought that this will be the case and there will be riots.

Blacklight

Tories will win over all by the skin of their teeth so don't panic. There's not quite enough Lib Dem support to win actual constituencies despite the rise of Clegg-mania.

barrymoney

Didnt Clegg say that whichever party 'has a mandate' deserves to form a government. So, if Tories win by a few seats, and win the popular vote, then he cant form a coalition with labour since they lost by both criteria. But, GB will offer libdems PR. He'll turn it down?