Great Britain is holding a House of Commons election on May 6. Three debates among the leaders of the Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democratic Parties have been scheduled (one has already taken place).
On April 23, the BBC Trust, which controls the invitations to these debates, ruled that two other parties will not be included in these debates. The two parties are the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru. See this story. The BBC Trust said that only the three invited parties have a chance of winning the election. Thanks to Eric Garris for the link.
Neither the Scottish National Party, nor Plaid Cymru, have enough candidates for House of Commons to elect a majority. It is not clear if two other parties that do have enough candidates to elect a majority, the UK Independence Party and the Green Party, have also complained about being excluded from the debates.
Actually, two of the debates have now taken place. The second one was yesterday.
I could be wrong but I think one of the other rules set out was that the parties needed at least one current MP in Westminster to apply for the debates, which UKIP and Greens represented at European level don’t have. SNP and Plaid Cymru only protested for media effect, as they only stand in their respected Constituent countries of Scotland and Wales anyway, which only represents less than 100 of the 650 seats.
Wow! The UK doesn’t even pretend to have a “free press”.Scotland and Wales should pull off a ‘US’ and get the h#@% away from Britain. Are their no freedom loving people left in the UK. You guys just watch as your candidates bicker about how best to divy up the spoils they get from taxing the life out of you.
# 3 NO written Constitution in the EVIL U.K. regime of party hacks in the gerrymander House of Commons.
ALL so-called *rights, privileges and immunities* are controlled by the party hacks — i.e. the DICTATOR Prime Minister in the EVIL regime.
Think the EVIL Lord North — the PM during most of the 175-1783 American Revolutionary WAR — the puppet stooge of the EVIL King George III back then.
Hope for a *hung* parliament — with the Lib Dems having the guts and brains to DEMAND P.R. — to END the EVIL minority rule gerrymander system in the U.K. — going back to the DARK AGE 1200s — 700 plus years.
It seems more and more likely that the Lib Dems will get first place in nationwide votes. But I think the following will happen: the Lib Dems will form a coalition with the Tories, but the Lib Dems get the most cabinet portfolios. Otherwise, all hell could break loose.
I doubt either of those two predictions – LibDems would be stupid to go into a coalition with the Tories, who are much further away from them on the positions…
I’d expect a government with Labour, although maybe it will only be a minority government and not a formal coalition. I hope that the LibDems will be able to get electoral reform for it, but I’m a pessimist on that… I also expect to see at least some attempts by the LibDems to get Labour to have Miliband or someone else be PM in such a government, so that they aren’t seen as propping up the unpopular Brown.
Even IF the LibDems poll 35% of the vote (which I do not think is very likely) they will only have 130 seats or so. Clegg has already ruled out a coalition government so unless the Tories or Labour come across with a very sweet deal (which would have to include electoral reform) I believe a minority government will happen. I would guess the Tories will end up with the most seats but be quite a bit short of a majority even with Irish Unionists included.
Well, having three candidates in a televised debate is frankly better then what is the norm with our presidential debates.
The British public is [generally] not as conservative as the Tories [who have tried to adopt more liberal views on cultural-social issues], so if they win a majority of the seats it will largely be anti-Brown sentiment rather then pro-Tory.
The Liberal Democrats have really gotten their act together and managed to become a serious political party that offers a alternative to both Labour and the Conservatives.
#7: The Conservatives are in a electoral pact with the UUP, but the only remaining UUP MP is standing as an Independent as a sign of their disapproval of the pact. The DUP isn’t particularly Conservative Party friendly either.
#9 Thanks for the info! I was under the impression that all Ulster parties with the name “unionist” were partial to the Tories.
#10 Its a true shame that Northern Ireland doesn’t get more spotlight, while it is only 18 seats at Westminster its politics is totally different (and understandably so for its history) to the mainland. A lot of the parties, including Sinn Fein and the DUP have or had links in the past to violent movements on the “Nationalist” and “Union” sides of the conflict, and hence their lack of support even on the Unionist side towards the mainstream parties in the mainland.
Over time the “moderate” groups, Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) (which does sit on the Labour bench with its 3 MP’s in Westminster but otherwise has no formal link) and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) have dwindled in support, which has led to the UUP being in this electoral alliance with the Conservative Party (also in last years European Parliament election where they did impressively well coming in 3rd).
The Conservative Party does not do well in Northern Ireland on its own, despite attempting to regularly in the last few decades even though it typically only stands in “Unionist” seats. Its quite possible that its formal link, which did put off their remaining MP to leave the party to stand as an independent will also be reflected in their vote. If it does, its quite possible we’ll see a merger as happened to the Scottish Unionist Party that existed from 1912 to 1965, which formally merged with the main Conservative Party due to a drop in support.