C’mon Clegg – Hung Parliaments are Great
by Chris on 19/04/10 at 8:08 am
Hung Parliaments work great in Switzerland. And, in fact, the constitutuion demands the Swiss Parliament is perpetually hung.
Recently in the media following the UK election there has been much talk about how the Liberal Democrats might spoil the party for the Tories and Labour. Within the commentary is the suggestion that the Lib Dems are going to threaten the very foundation of Westminster Democracy by forcing a government to govern with less than 50 per cent of the seats within Parliament. How dare they?
The reason is simply that with a majority of seats, but less than 50 per cent, at any time the others could gang up and pass a no-confidence motion and bring down the parliament. Tut tut.
But is this so terrible? Well, I guess it is if the government wants to have it all its own way, and not have to negotiate with the other parties. When you want to rule the chicken roost, it’s not nice that you might have to go cap-in-hand to the others and ask for their help in getting legislation passed. .....
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