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18 Feb 2010
by Dhc
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DEBATE: SHOULD WE BE WORRIED ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF A HUNG PARLIAMENT?
Posted by: LLBlynch
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2699
A hung parliament is very unusual in British politics, in recent years it has been almost unknown to have a weak government that does not have a massive majority. We however should not be worried about the prospect of a hung parliament. Instead we should relish the thought that for once the government will not be able to drive through anything it wants. Democracy will be better for a period when the backbenchers have a more of a say and can vote down bills they don’t like. After all governments do not have a monopoly on wisdom.
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SHOULD WE BE WORRIED ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF A HUNG PARLIAMENT?
a weak Government causes unpredictability
When we have a weak Government, a strong plan cannot be achieved. A strong Government can make a variety of decision, pass the legislation and take a country in a general direction. Be that direction good or bad, it is better than travelling in circles. There is no overall direction that the country moves in when there is a hung Parliament. With each vote, the outcome is unpredictable and therefore plans cannot be made as to a follow up improvement, concreting that decision. There is no vision driving politicians to move forward; a hung Parliament is more likely to chase its own tail. With the recession still biting at our daily lives, we need a Government that can implement fiscal policies. With a hung Government it would be unpredictable, and this not a way to recover an economy
SHOULD WE BE WORRIED ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF A HUNG PARLIAMENT?
The choosing of the Prime Minister will be strained
Normally, Britain’s political constitution is quite simple. The parties each vote for their own party leader. This person will be the figure head of the party and if the party win a general election, that leader is to become the Prime Minister. The idea is that this Prime Minister would then have the support of the majority of the commons because he comes from the party who have the most MPs in the Commons and most of them voted for him to be the leader. This is termed as the confidence of the Commons. This confidence level can be questioned and the Commons can go to vote on whether they have confidence in the Prime Minister. The opposition parties will vote no, but this is normally overcome by the yes votes of the majority party. In a hung Parliament, the Prime Minister will almost inevitably be voted against for lack of confidence. Not all those who hold a Labour seat will vote yes in these elections by the Commons. We are then left with the issue of who is Prime Minister once this Prim Minister is defeated, constitutionally the Queen decides. But as a mere figure head with no political force, she is likely to declare the dissolution of Parliament for another election. But this is simply not the kind of occurrence we need with an economic crisis on our hands.
SHOULD WE BE WORRIED ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF A HUNG PARLIAMENT?
Appearance of weakness
Often this can be just as bad as a real problem. A loss of confidence in the political system could lead to greater voter apathy and a further decrease in political participation. Equally, it could result in a loss of market confidence, and ultimately, a run on the pound.
SHOULD WE BE WORRIED ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF A HUNG PARLIAMENT?
it is more democratic
Of course the Liberal Democrats would argue this. They are the ones who would benefit the most out of a hung Parliament. Where no one party holds a great majority the smaller third party, in our two-party system, will have more of a voice in decisions. But this does not mean that the system is more democratic. The system is the same, a first past the post system, whereby we do not actually choose our Prime Minister or our leading party, we only decide what Minister runs our local council. This is far from Democratic, regardless of whether the Lib Dems have more of a say or not.
The Liberal Democrats have long argued that our electoral system is not effective democracy. They term the single power driven party system the ‘elective dictatorship’.
With so much power in a majority Parliament, the Government can pass pretty much any legislation they feel like. However, under a ‘hung Parliament’ or as the Liberal Democrats would prefer to call it the ‘balanced Parliament’, a wider array of opinions would get to decide on the future of and therefore a wider range of people would be represented. Surely this is more democratic than allowing a majority to bulldoze their opinions in, even if the specific issue did not arise before the election.
What do you think? Vote on this point below.
SHOULD WE BE WORRIED ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF A HUNG PARLIAMENT?
We are only scared of that which we are not experienced in.
But it is our ministers who are complaining about the possibility of a hung Parliament. Kenneth Clark, a conservative Minister of Parliament even stated that a hung Parliament would be worse than another term of Labour. Most of our current ministers have only been in their seat since 1997. From then to now the constitution of the House of Commons has been the same, a Labour majority. It is this to which they are accustomed. But in a hung Parliament or in a coalition, things work differently. Ministers turning up to voting proceedings will all of a sudden paramount to the outcome. The process of co-operating with another party will be completely new phenomena to these ministers. But we are in a recession and we need our ministers to be thinking about how to run our country, not how to behave before they can run our country.
Compared to other democracies in the modern Western world, Britain has had very few hung Parliaments. The last time this occurred was in 1974, and that was only for a term of 5 years. Britain as a nation has a habit of being very wary of that which it does not know. We may be able to see that other Democracies function well on a hung Parliament but we refuse to accept this until we have a positive experience ourselves of a hung Parliament. After over 10 years of Labour rule, perhaps this is just such the positive experience we will get.
What do you think? Vote on this point below.
SHOULD WE BE WORRIED ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF A HUNG PARLIAMENT?
It makes politics exciting
The reason why a Hung Parliament is expected is because the opinion polls keep varying in their results. Whilst Conservative used to have a startlingly high percentage in opinion polls, that majority holding is dwindling. Currently there is only a 9% gap between the Tory and Labour party[1]. These figures are producing a fear of a hung Parliament, but at least the political on goings are having an effect on people! With the results being so varied, with the opinion polls changing, we do not know who will win the next election. With Labour seemingly making ground all the time, we could have another term of Labour Government. If the POSSIBILITY of a hung Parliament can get us talking about politics this much, the ACTUALITY of a hung Parliament would be great news for getting Britain talking about important issues rather than celebrity or sport gossip.
SHOULD WE BE WORRIED ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF A HUNG PARLIAMENT?
it could solve voter apathy
This may work for this one election, but then what? Voter apathy will go back to normal; a bigger change needs to be made to catch the attention of young stay with politics. This is assuming that a hung Parliament will provide these effects. What if the young see their vote as what it is? Worthless. Even with a hung Parliament, what you vote for is your constituency, not the Prime Minister or the governing party of the whole country. There are some constituencies that have a strong predilection to one party, so a vote for the third party is worthless even if they are the party you would like to vote for to ensure a hung parliament. What counts is the number of constituencies ‘won’ by parties, any vote for a party different to that winning party then is disregarded. We need a bigger political shake up than a hung Parliament to solve our political apathy.
Currently in Britain, the turn out for elections is extremely low. Just over half of the population voted in the 2001 General election. Of this 59%[1] most are 65+. The trend is that the older you are the more likely you are to vote. The lowest age group of voters is the 18-24 group. However, with the possibility of a different governing style arising, this will enthuse the young to vote. Not only will they be able to see that their votes does make a difference, as the figures are so close, but they will also be able to have a say in how the democratic system is to work. Rather than a vote for the third party, the Lib Dems, being a wasted vote, suddenly it is now the potential of changing our system from a two party to a three party system. With such a constitutional change at stake, the young will be more inclined to vote, and this is to be praised not feared.
What do you think? Vote on this point below.
SHOULD WE BE WORRIED ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF A HUNG PARLIAMENT?
We rarely have a landslide Government majority anyway, so it will not make much difference
The past three decades have been dominated by majority government holdings. From 1997 till now, we have been lead by a majority Labour government. and prior to that we had a large majority Conservative ruling. Perhaps the last 30 years have changed our expectations of politics. In fact, if we look at the last 100 years[1], 34 of them were spent as either a coalition (where two parties join forces, the third party and the leading party) or more commonly, a minor leading party, where the number of MP seats was not significantly different. So whilst we may have only had 3 hung Parliaments in the last 100 years, there have been many other occasions when a clear majority was not elected. So this fear we have of hung Parliaments is irrational.
SHOULD WE BE WORRIED ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF A HUNG PARLIAMENT?
Could incite electoral reform
One of the main issues that this hung Parliament debate is highlighting is how unsatisfactory the first past the post system is. Whilst people are arguing about voters being more likely to take part and inciting an interest in politics and it making everything more democratic, the counter argument always is – how can this be so when there is a first past the post system. Evidence can be seen to how unsatisfactory this form of democracy is when we look at the seating composition of the Commons compared with the % of votes. Labour in the 2005 election got a majority of 66 seats, this means they held 55% of the seats in the House of Commons compared with the 30% conservatives owned. If we look at the total percentage, however, of Britain’s voting Labour had 36% of the vote compared with Conservatives 33% of the vote[1]. This clearly is not democracy working, but the two leading parties are not going to incite electoral reform. What we need is the emergence of a third party, and they would try and change the system. A hung Parliament is the perfect opportunity for this to happen.
Vote on the overall debate: Should we be worried about the possibility of a hung parliament?
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LLBlynch
|12:44, 07 January 10
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LLBlynch
|10:49, 08 January 10
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Freddy
|18:50, 18 February 10
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LLBlynch
|11:58, 07 January 10
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LLBlynch
|09:46, 08 January 10
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LLBlynch
|09:52, 08 January 10
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LLBlynch
|11:45, 08 January 10
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LLBlynch
|10:01, 08 January 10
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LLBlynch
|10:15, 08 January 10
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|10:20, 08 January 10
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LLBlynch
|10:40, 08 January 10
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LLBlynch
|12:41, 08 January 10
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