And So We Wait . . . ..

Gordon Brown To Resign

Gordon Brown has announced he will resign as Labour leader, I, as I'm sure many will rejoice the era of Brown and Blair has gone. That is after all the back stabbing, the leader contest will bring. Yet in resigning Brown has lit the fuse to talks between the Lib Dems and Labour. I truly hope the Lib Dems don't cut off their nose to spite their face. As this looks like it's descending into chaos - no one knows who will be the next leader of the Labour party, yet again they will be "unelected" and to save us from the instability of a minority government, they will give us a minority coalition.

Oh well, let's just savour the moment. Gordon Brown is being thrown to the back benches of good bye political career, so long and thanks for all the fish.

After The Election

I've been looking over the results to find some sort of pattern to them, there are some striking wins and swings. It seems an election fought very much on local and MP issues/expenses. There's little pattern to it outside of that, other than it being clear everyone lost, but some more so than others. A few big Labour names have gone - Jacqui Smith and Charles Clarke. Caroline Lucas, a Green MP makes a welcome addition to parliament. But most striking for me is how much divergence there is between the vote share and seat numbers:

Tories 36% of vote, 49% of the seats
Labour 29% of vote, 42 % of the seats
Lib Dem; 23% of vote, 9% of the seats

That is ridiculous. They speak of making parliament representative of the public with regard to gender and ethnicity. What about getting the basics right first, just simply reflecting how people vote.

Cameron is asking the Lib Dems to form a coalition with him, so far talks seem amicable and I would even go so far to say mature. I hope that it develops into something productive. As democratic and stable won't be a coalition between Labour and the Lib Dems, it will need to also include the nationalist parties, and what will there support cost? Ring fencing national budgets, leaving the UK in a position where England will be the only part of the country filling the black hole of debt. Not too mention it leaves Gordon Brown clinging to power by the fingernails he doesn’t have. That isn't workable.

Though I understand the reluctance/hostility/distrust both the Lib Dems and Tories feel towards this coalition. This is the hand that's been dealt and though there is a lot of difference between the two parties on social issues, there is overlap with regard to civil liberties, the role of the state, economy and the environment. It can only be a good thing for Britain that the Tories have the social conscience of the Lib Dems.