Hung Parliament in the UK

Here in Britain it’s the morning after the night before, and as widely expected we are well into hung parliament territory, with the distribution of seats making it very unclear as to who will form the next government. The opposition Conservatives are the largest party, but well short of having an overall majority. The least worst scenario that many of us hoped for is that the governing Labour Party would form a coalition with the third largest party, the Liberal Democrats; but adding their seats together most probably won’t be sufficient to secure a majority. As I write the picture is uncertain, but that could change soon.

The idea of David Cameron, the Conservative leader, becoming Prime Minister is anathema to myself and most of my friends. This man presents himself as a modern caring socially conscious right winger, but he’s classically in the mould of English upper class toff, educated at Eton, where they still wear morning coats and stiff collars, and coming from a very rich, aristocratic background with a long history of holding power in high finance. He somehow thinks it’s his birthright to be Prime Minister (see video below) and his election campaign was lacklustre, offering vague promises of ‘change’ without specifying what kind of change. He only prospered because the Labour government, led by Gordon Brown, is so weak. Those who remember past Conservative governments know what Cameron’s ‘change’ means—tax breaks for the rich, higher VAT to penalise those on low incomes, cuts in public services—the same old depressing story.

All the focus is on Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, who holds the balance of power and is looking to do a deal on Proportional Representation as the price for his support. He’s just spoken, ominously endorsing the Conservatives, so very soon we might have a Conservative/Liberal Democrat collation here, a big sell out of ideals for the sake of power. What a slap in the face to those who voted Liberal in order to keep out the Conservatives. In the end it comes down to arithmetic rather than any higher motivation. No combination of any of the large parties plus smaller ones adds up to a government apart from Conservative plus Liberal Democrat. Yet the two would seem idealistically miles apart. We are moving into very bizarre territory.