| Submit your comments on this article |
| Britain |
| Hung parliament: paralysed Britain |
| 2010-05-07 |
| As opinion polls point with increasing certainty to the likelihood of a hung parliament, top historian Dominic Sandbrook asks: have we learned nothing from history? Here, he outlines the five years of political paralysis, economic meltdown and national humiliation that were the legacy of the last hung parliament - and how uncanny the parallels are with today. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #14 It's a holding action. Gridlock is our friend. Keep from spending money and making more dip$hit laws. There is not alot of good news. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2010-05-07 20:58 |
| #13 Paralysis would actually be a good thing for the UK right now. All of the major parties are big government liberal parties. At the very least, paralysis would stop Cameron, Clegg and Brown's replacement (as party leader) from enacting any more grand social experiments. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2010-05-07 17:04 |
| #12 The whole notion of contagion and the idea that it somehow spreads from one country to another is false. What happened at the stock exchange yesterday then? |
| Posted by: bigjim-CA 2010-05-07 16:59 |
| #11 http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/2009/11/poor-you-will-always-have-with-you-and.html. This article shows why Britain is in a mess with Labour in charge as they rely on high unemployment/immigrant areas- |
| Posted by: Paul D 2010-05-07 16:35 |
| #10 Old Spook: Cameron and the Tories got 100 new seats. That's no small feat given that Labour pro'ly does electioneering as well as our Democrats + ACORN. Give the man his due. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2010-05-07 11:22 |
| #9 As I understand it, there just aren't enough MPs in the Ulster fringe parties to make up a majority. Can elected MPs break free like they do in Canada, or are they shackled to their parties? |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2010-05-07 10:01 |
| #8 As of right now the UKIP has about 900K votes, or a little over 3%, and no seats. Apparently their votes are too spread out over the country. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2010-05-07 08:02 |
| #7 I think I'll claim asylum in Texas. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2010-05-07 07:01 |
| #6 I dont think the Tories will go with Clegg and the Lib Dems for the now , their policies are too far out . I suspect Cameron will be looking towards the Unionist parties in Northern Ireland as the first port of call to drag up some extra 'teamies' I really hope they can get enough without Clegg and his crowd , but I also dont want them scrapping votes from pond life either As it stands at 9am gmt Party Seats Swing % Conservative 288 +90 36.2 Labour 241 -84 29.0 Liberal Democrat 51 -6 23.0 Poor show by Lib Dems really .. UKIP didnt really figure , and in some areas (including mine) BNP got a larger share of the vote , but they havent won a seat anywhere . |
| Posted by: Oscar 2010-05-07 04:12 |
| #5 Phil, finance is ultimately a confidence game. Falling confidence => panic aka contagion. Add to this the concentration of assets in a few global mega-banks and huge hedge funds, and it becomes possible for a collapse in Asia to affect Russia, or a US housing bubble to tank German banks. Very difficult to ring-fence one market from another. I don't see any way this situation will get better. I think we're in for another huge hit, and a market crash. |
| Posted by: lex 2010-05-07 03:57 |
| #4 Hang smang. 305 + 61 > 326. (You're not gonna insists that Nick will stand on principle---are you?) |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2010-05-07 03:51 |
| #3 The whole notion of contagion and the idea that it somehow spreads from one country to another is false. Even if Greece didn't exist, Spain and Portugal's debt pile wouldn't change by one Euro. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2010-05-07 03:30 |
| #2 If Cameron were a REAL conservative instead of some upper crust fop, the Conservatives would likely have gotten their majority. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2010-05-07 01:08 |
| #1 Hung parliament means no serious budget cuts, which means the IMF's a-gonna come a-knockin' sooner than you tink, which means... CONTAGION. Our reckoning will come in due course. Buckle your seatbelts. |
| Posted by: lex 2010-05-07 00:46 |