For those of us who know little or nothing about Politics...

[.Sean.]

Would somebody 'in the know' so to speak be so kind as to explain the current predicament to us?

[Jay]

Would somebody 'in the know' so to speak be so kind as to explain the current predicament to us?

Check out the big election thread. I asked a similar question. Lots of interesting stuff on it.

[lyonhibs]

Check out the big election thread. I asked a similar question. Lots of interesting stuff on it.

:agree:

Keep in mind that Gordon Brown has effectively waived the right the constitution gives him to have 1st chance at forming a coalition as the incumbent PM.

Cameron and Clegg are supposed to be having a telephone "chat" tonight.

Hopefully Clegg goes against tradition and is a Lib Dem with the balls not to just roll over and get his tummy tickled by one of the bigger parites in exchange for some snazzy sounding, yet relatively minor concessions on the Tory manifesto.

[Jay]

:agree:

Keep in mind that Gordon Brown has effectively waived the right the constitution gives him to have 1st chance at forming a coalition as the incumbent PM.
Cameron and Clegg are supposed to be having a telephone "chat" tonight.

Hopefully Clegg goes against tradition and is a Lib Dem with the balls not to just roll over and get his tummy tickled by one of the bigger parites in exchange for some snazzy sounding, yet relatively minor concessions on the Tory manifesto.

When and why did he do that?

[.Sean.]

All this Political talk may aswell be written and spoken about in Chinese. Me and my pals quite honestly do not have a clue about the vast majority of it. We do know the leaders of the parties, part of their manifesto's etc but all this talk of 'Exit Polls' and 'Hung Parliaments'- WTF?!

[AgentDaleCooper]

When and why did he do that?

in his speech - he said that he would wait for the tories and the lib dems to try to form a coalition before he would approach clegg. he is not required by the constitution to do this.

he probably did it because he knows that he is very much clegg's 2nd choice.

[PeeJay]

All this Political talk may aswell be written and spoken about in Chinese. Me and my pals quite honestly do not have a clue about the vast majority of it. We do know the leaders of the parties, part of their manifesto's etc but all this talk of 'Exit Polls' and 'Hung Parliaments'- WTF?!

Why is that then - what is of so little interest to you?

[lyonhibs]

All this Political talk may aswell be written and spoken about in Chinese. Me and my pals quite honestly do not have a clue about the vast majority of it. We do know the leaders of the parties, part of their manifesto's etc but all this talk of 'Exit Polls' and 'Hung Parliaments'- WTF?!

This is not rocket science.

Exit polls - polls taken in 130 (but that number isn't - as far as I know - set in stone) random constituencies around the country by asking voters who they voted for just as - get this - they were "exiting" the polling station. Gives a very rough idea of voting preferences, but is really more something for the political commentators to natter on about before any actual results come in.

Hung Parliament = meaning that no one party has achieved the required number of constituencies to get an overall majority in the House of Commons. There are 650 constituencies in the land = 650 seats in the House of Commons = 326 seats required for an outright majority.

This is important because a party with an outright majority can push changes in the law/new laws that it wants through the House of Commons, as long as all of its own elected MP's vote in favour of it.

As things stand, as laws have to be passed by a majority of all the MP's that decide to vote on it, The Tories are more often than not going to have to rely on votes from minority parties to get certain manifesto policies actually put into law. To be guaranteed the support of these minority parties on certain issues, the Tories will likely have to give concessions to the minority parties in other areas, dependent on where the biggest manifesto differences between the Tories and the minority party (or parties) exist - this time around in electoral reform and probably the structure of income tax.

Print that out or something :greengrin

Keep it for the next General Election or something, as - whilst it's not exactly a great oeuvre of political theory - it is (I think...............) mostly correct without delving into the really complex fineries, which I don't understand in any case.

[.Sean.]

This is not rocket science.

Exit polls - polls taken in 130 (but that number isn't - as far as I know - set in stone) random constituencies around the country by asking voters who they voted for just as - get this - they were "exiting" the polling station. Gives a very rough idea of voting preferences, but is really more something for the political commentators to natter on about before any actual results come in.

Hung Parliament = meaning that no one party has achieved the required number of constituencies to get an overall majority in the House of Commons. There are 650 constituencies in the land = 650 seats in the House of Commons = 326 seats required for an outright majority.

This is important because a party with an outright majority can push changes in the law/new laws that it wants through the House of Commons, as long as all of its own elected MP's vote in favour of it.

As things stand, as laws have to be passed by a majority of all the MP's that decide to vote on it, The Tories are more often than not going to have to rely on votes from minority parties to get certain manifesto policies actually put into law. To be guaranteed the support of these minority parties on certain issues, the Tories will likely have to give concessions to the minority parties in other areas, dependent on where the biggest manifesto differences between the Tories and the minority party (or parties) exist - this time around in electoral reform and probably the structure of income tax.

Print that out or something :greengrin

Keep it for the next General Election or something, as - whilst it's not exactly a great oevre of plitical theory - it is (I think...............) mostly correct without delving into the really complex fineries, which I don't understand in any case.
Thank you lyonhibs!!! :greengrin

[Sir David Gray]

You should read up on all of it, there may well be another election in a few months' time. :agree: