Liberal Democrats hold balance in hung parliament (Hexham Liberal Democrats)

Hexham Liberal Democrats <info@hexhamlibdems.org.uk>

Liberal Democrats hold balance in hung parliament

May 7, 2010 9:23 PM

The 2010 General Election has resulted in the widely predicted balance parliament in which the Liberal Democrats now hole the balance in power, The hoped for dramatic surge in the Lib Dem vote did not materialise, but in spite of a 1% increase in the vote, the 6,827,938 (current number) people who voted Lib Dem were rewarded with only 57 MPs.

However the Lib Dems were not the only party to be disappointed with the result. Cameron's Tories went into the election with around 40% of the opinion polls and with Labour's disastrous handling of the economy they were widely predicted to win a comfortable majority. But a lacklustre campaign and an equally lacklustre display by David Cameron (especially in his first televised leadership broadcast), resulted in a failure to achieve a working majority. Although perhaps not as bad as some thought, the Labour vote collapsed with the loss of over 90 seats including current and former ministers.

Even the smaller parties failed to make the gains some predicted, Following the expenses' scandals it was thought that the minor parties would benefit. Both the Welsh and Scottish nationalists disappointed, and UKIP and the BNP failed to achieve the protest votes from the European elections. And the predicted surge in support for celebrity 'Independents' failed to materialise.

Perhaps the electorate (either knowingly or unknowingly) decided the answer was to make all the parties work together for once, to work to solve the countries economic problems. Perhaps the electorate wants co-operation between the parties not conflict. Perhaps what the electorate wants is a balanced parliament, and a government which reflects all views. Perhaps what the country wants is a fair voting system where parties are represented by a similar proportion of MPs to the number of voters. Perhaps what the country wants is PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION.