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Showing posts from February, 2015

Can anything save us from this constitutional car crash?

The latest predictions from The Guardian for the outcome of the UK general election will occupy the dreams of political scientists and the nightmares of politicians. The figures speak of a constitutional crisis. A stalemate in which a most unlikely coalition would need to be formed in order to produce a majority government. If these numbers were reflected in the poll on May 7 th , the only mathematically plausible option is for Labour, the SNP and the Liberal Democrats to forge a three-way alliance. The disgraced former minister Chris Huhne rightly points ou t that the fixed-term parliaments may tend to favour coalition rather than minority government. But that presupposes there really is a workable coalition. I see this ScotLibLab pact as being something that might possibly be agreed on paper out of desperation, but which would be inherently unstable from hour one. Trident, tuition fees, the history of recent animosity. It’s a recipe for absolute chaos. Of course, it’s t