The polls closed at 10pm, and when I started dozing at midnight, they had only called 3 of the 650 elections. But I kept the news on all night and only got about 4 hours of sleep. When I woke up at 4:45, they still had 200 races yet to call. Here's how things stand now: Labour has 256 parliament seats; the Tories have 302 seats. A party needs 326 seats in order to have outright power.
So where does that leave the government today? It's a hung parliament, which means the incumbent Prime Minister has a chance to form some kind of coalition government, usually by joining with some of the smaller parties to reach that magical 326-seat majority. This usually means making deals and concessions that go back on campaign promises and upset the electorate.
Obviously the Conservatives are outraged that the party who got the most seats doesn't get first attempt at forming the coalition government. They're saying the public has sent the clear message of rejection of the Labour government, so they don't have a "moral right" to govern. Even the Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg said this morning that he believes the Tories should be allowed to form a government because they hold the most seats. It's possible the LibDems will make a deal with the Conservatives, but their party platforms seem so incompatible!
I'll keep you posted over the next few days. A lingering question this morning is whether the Queen will get involved in settling the election. I have no idea what power she has and what form her involvement might take. I'm eager to see what happens next!
1 comment:
Thanks for all of the info about the election situation. The headlines on CNN regarding the election say things like "And the winner is..." "What's Next?" and something about the queen getting the final say. I'm glad I don't have to read all those articles since I can just tune into your blog to find out what happens. :)
Post a Comment