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

That's basically it -- it gives a minority govt the same privileges as a majority one, which the public hasn't given it.

this allows them to keep power while they elect a new leader and have him reform a coalition But how long would we have to wait for the party to choose a new leader in the first place and what government would we have in the mean time? And what if this new leader can't reform a coalition? There doesn't seem to be any mechanism to bring things to an end: it relies on the MPs that form the government voting out their own government without obliging them to do so.

Yes, exactly. Is ludicrous. No mention on BBC yet, either.

im just amazed how little the media has picked up on this. five-year parliaments are comparatively rare, aren't they?

1959–64
1992–97
2005–10

see a pattern?

oh and the glorious 1974–79 of course, which also fits the pattern

I'm amazed how little the media which was so fair and balanced during its coverage of the election and negotiations has picked up on this

Hold on, it's even more stupid than I thought. Presumably a future majority government could call an election whenever it wanted (as long as it had at least 55% of the seats) by calling and winning a motion of no confidence in itself, whereas a minority government would be obliged to continue to the end of the five years even if it didn't want to. What a load of shit.

lol yes I considered this earlier

ha, ha, ha

i guess the LDs are counting on no more majority governments. instead you can just come last and still get cabinet seats!

At what point does "short-lived" in this thread title become an unbearable mockery btw?

As soon as the Parliament Reform Act gets through the Lords, I guess!

Still, looking forward to DUP having to think up questions every week for PMQs...

"if there is hope, it lies in the lords."

Every time I think about this 55% thing it makes me angry. I'm sort of hoping the BBC, Guardian, Independent etc haven't picked up properly on this because there's been so much else going on and it'll become a bigger issue later. This government has a reasonable mandate to govern, the Tories got more votes than anyone else, but changing the entire system just to keep it propped up for five years is against all logic.

Finally some traction on this on Newsnight - Kirsty Wark grilling Jeremy Hunt on it.

lil bit in the times:

http://timesonline.typepad.com/law/2010/05/plans-for-fixedterm-parliaments-not-credible-and-dangerous-says-law-expert.html

"momentous moment" - good start d-mil.

the guardian and independent must be deep in shock atm

Yeah - Kirsty Wark asked Jeremy Hunt, Tory shitebag ESQ, about it and his response was "Fixed terms have been discussed many times" and she said no, it's not about fixed terms it's about the change from 51 to 55, that's a significant change and feels like you and the Lib Dems have just hustled this up to help yourselves. His response was "It's a small change, and necessary for a strong, stable government". Then she moved on. I think there is such a huge number of bullet points that interviewers and columnists have to get through - having been told by their editors to address them - that nothing is really getting a hard look at this point.

Also Crick did an interview a constitutional expert on Newsnight and he was saying this was basically up to no good.

I think there is still an assumption that the 55% will not stop a breakdown, should it happen - hence the lack of queries on it and/or anger. xps

people seem to be more concerned about equality minister theresa may not being all that into equality, which i guess is...easier to fit into 140 characters, or something. actually massively shocked this hasn't been picked up on to a greater extent.

struggle to find a Tory MP who was that into equality tho

Tracer, there is of course the issue of the newscaster varying her question and getting six stonewalling/similar answers.

kirsty wark informs our cabinet is now 65% oxbridge, 61% privately schooled

I think that if the coalition collapsed then a sufficient number of Tories would have to end up voting against the government in a no confidence vote. The alternative would be keeping a crippled govt on life support for what could be years. The Tories just could not do that, they would be rightly blamed by the electorate for an unprecedented period of stasis and absolutely massacred at the next election.

kirsty wark informs our cabinet is now 65% oxbridge, 61% privately schooled

― ogmor, Wednesday, 12 May 2010 22:16 (43 seconds ago) Bookmark

tbf this is still a lower percentage than pretty much any British national newspaper

kirsty wark informs our cabinet is now 65% oxbridge, 61% privately schooled

― ogmor, Wednesday, May 12, 2010 11:16 PM (57 seconds ago) Bookmark

surprised it's as few as that tbqh!

http://noto55.com/

tory twitters arguing it's just for dissolution, and that Holyrood model (if no govt forms 28 days after a no confidence vote dissolution is automatic) will be adopted, but haven't seen that anywhere yet.

I just want to say that Cameron's voice is already making the hair on the back of my neck stand up with poisonous hatred.

lib dems already caving on banking reform, great job so far guys: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/may/12/osborne-cable-bank-reforms

struggle to find a Tory MP who was that into equality tho

well indeed!

tbf this is still a lower percentage than pretty much any British national newspaper

there is no balance reinstated by noting this similar shitpile, just a sensation of yr skin cooling as you think about the UK

kirsty wark informs our cabinet is now 65% oxbridge, 61% privately schooled

― ogmor, Wednesday, May 12, 2010 11:16 PM (57 seconds ago) Bookmark

surprised it's as few as that tbqh!

― Greatest contributor: (history mayne), Wednesday, 12 May 2010 23:18 (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

paul waugh of the standard is speculating that letwin and george young (leader of the house) are not given a seat at the cabinet, even though their jobs would normally deserve one, because cameron doesn't want this figure to look any worse (they're both etonians as well).

lib dems already caving on banking reform, great job so far guys: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/may/12/osborne-cable-bank-reforms

lol they couldn't even get to midnight on the first day of the coalition

struggle to find a Tory MP who was that into equality tho

Nick Herbert was an openly gay member of the Tory Shadow Cabinet, but I think he got dropped?

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/02/17/gay-tory-nick-herbert-says-party-has-made-rapid-conversion-on-gay-equality/

Support from the LGBT community for the Conservatives dropped from 39 percent in 2009 to 6% at the time of the election.

Big up Chris Grayling.

prime minister cameron will never underestimate the pubescent double-barrelled lesbian vote again

think I've seen that video

are you thinking of portillo's progress?

toby young, loathsome human being, tries and fails to make cameron seem likeable:

At a recent college gaudy I sat next to a contemporary of Dave’s who told me about the the moment he was told he might be rusticated after letting off a fire extinguisher in the offices of Cherwell, the university newspaper. He was sitting in Old Quad, feeling a bit down in the dumps, when Dave wandered up and asked him what the matter was. After he told him, Dave insisted on driving this forlorn 21-year-old to his family home in Berkshire where they spent the afternoon lounging by his swimming pool and eating chocolate cake.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyyoung/100039418/david-cameron-the-brasenose-years/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook#*x119x97x115

assume that's how he won over clegg too.

Dave insisted on driving this forlorn 21-year-old to his family home in Berkshire where they spent the afternoon lounging by his swimming pool and eating chocolate cake bumping enormous lines of coke.

haha, if cameron took this approach individually to solve the Deep Social Problems facing broken britain it wld be the dawn of an infinitely superior generation of tory clown

I'm pretty sure universal access to etonian's to lift yr spirits at their houses of inherited furniture is the most common definition of equality of opportunity

We need to hit up a certain music critic for contemporaneous Brasenose stories.

But can Broken Britain provide enough chocolate cake in these economically challenged times? (xp)

Let them eat chocolate cake, by the pool.

oh god dealin with tory apologists for this on twitter is infuriating. it's only day 1, ffs.

Awesome I've just remembered we've got fruit cake in the bread bin

wow looks like David Macaroon was right, I feel better already