DEM not gonna CON dis NATION: Rolling UK politics in the short-lived Cleggeron era

oh great, xp.

I don't think there is any moral ground for them to insist on a fixed term and those margins when their authority is this shaky - it would feel more legitimate after a normal result.

yeah, fixed terms and enhanced majorities is the kind of thing you should have a much, much more explicit mandate for.

xp to myself
And then read this published in March. Sums up the reasons for it happening and the reasons it might not work quite well. (PDF file alert)
http://www.centreforum.org/assets/pubs/a-lib-con-trick.pdf

Iain Duncan Smith! It's like they're playing the worst game of Fantasy Football ever.

was in parliament working for the LDs when the orange book came out, so i've read it. will read that pdf on the train home.

but my point was that, whatever clegg's natural affinities are (and i don't disagree that they are more con than labour), with labour showing zero flexibility and LD + lab + sdlp still being short of a majority, i don't think his personal preferences came into it.

Where can find more on this 55% for No Confid motion / four-year fixed term stuff? Because if that's passed (and even if it's a free vote and half the LDs vote against it, it'll pass), we need to wheel Rifkind out again to see if he'd like to reframe his Mugabe comments of Monday. Truly outrageous.

Mr Hague told BBC Radio 4's Today programme a five-year fixed-term parliament had been introduced to help guarantee stability: "We have done everything possible to lock ourselves together to avoid the dangers of instability and haggling that are of course present in any hung parliament."

The BBC has learned that the only way to remove a government before the five years is up would be in a vote of confidence backed by 55% of MPs. Current rules are that the votes of 50% of MPs, plus one, can remove a government.

is all i've seen.

mugabe endorsed the tories, game recognize game.

Fixed term parliament is the worst thing about it.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, May 12, 2010 1:56 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

otm

55% would require every single LibDem to rebel plus a handful of Tories as well, right? If that goes ahead we are actually stuck with them for five years.

what if the lib dems refused to pass a tory budget? it wouldn't meet the new no confidence rules, but if you can't pass a budget you can't govern. they'd be forced to have an election anyway, right?

WHAT THE FUCK

Still sounding too ridiculous that they would get such a major reform through without anyone having mentioned it before the election or anything. Tell me there is some way that this might not happen. Or at the very least that people will be outrageously pissed off and make it known in some exciting way.

i can see the logic of fixed-term parliaments in theory, but introducing FIVE-year terms with such a weak mandate is some bullshit

they're about to make a statement together which this will presumably be in

also, this purports to be the lib-con agreement http://liberalconspiracy.org/2010/05/12/exclusive-was-this-the-con-lib-agreement/

And there it is. Christ, needs to be a front-page splash in Mirror, Graun, Indie, whoever else will fucking listen... They have changed the bloody rules because they fell short of the winning post. You can remain in government with 293 seats, effectively.

theresa may also women's minister wonder why

"freedom, fairness and responsibility"

sounds like one and a half a piece

NEEDS ODD COUPLE THEME INTRO MUSIC

gl'uk

You can remain in government with 293 seats, effectively.

doesn't this benefit the opposition too tho, potentially?

ironically, nagl uk

NEEDS ODD COUPLE THEME INTRO MUSIC

― tweedledee and tweedledem (suzy), Wednesday, 12 May 2010 13:24 (28 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Nah, use the "Terry and June" one.

use THE HORST WESSEL SONG more like

"What'll I do...when you...are gone away...and I...am blue, what'll I do..."

Next poll?

"It's cold outside, there's no kind of atmosphere..."

Are they still campaigning? What is this risible shit?

god bless hooky street

"Everybody needs good neighbours, with a little understanding, you can find the perfect blend..."

"We have agreed to establish a commission to consider the ‘West Lothian question’."
oh godddddd

These press questions are total softballs!!!

any sign of a proper inquiry on iraq?

god bless hooky street

no inheritance tax, no STV
no money back, no guarantee?

Good election to lose ha fucking ha

Black or White?
Rich or Poor?

like everything in section 10 except Mail-pleasing "mechanism to prevent proliferation of criminal offences"

(two questions from the Bullingdon club application form)

xpost Myself!

so weird

xxxp We'll cut public services by the score!

itv in with the first question

C4 surely? It was Gary Gibbon.

"new politics" such a fucking meaningless soundbite

first actual question i mean, not a "so will you be awesome?". probably because they're pissed off that they're not getting ad reform out of ofcom

The parties will bring forward early legislation to introduce a power of recall, allowing voters to force a by-election where an MP was found to have engaged in serious wrongdoing and having had a petition calling for a by-election signed by 10% of his or her constituents.

*cough* back door General Election *cough*

*cough*Clegg in trouble then*cough*

10% of constituents? So that's about a fifth of voters in most seats. The larks that could cause, especially on a tiny majority like this.

This 55% thing is making my head explode.

These laughing buffoons in the press gallery are fucking contemptible.