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Depending on your view on the role of government this is not necessarily a bad thing. Canada has had a series of minority governments over the past few years, a

Depending on your view on the role of government this is not necessarily a bad thing. Canada has had a series of minority governments over the past few years, and that has not been a factor in the recent economic crises.

deleted 16y ago
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ivenkys 16y ago
Its not necessarily a bad thing , the issue here is none of the other smaller parties have anything in common with the Tories,who look unlikely to form a govt. on their own. Of course, a rag-tag coalition ideologically opposite of each other might still work but not very well, i suspect.
- kmfrk 16y ago
  That is representative democracy in action. I don't mind that more than 35% of the British people are represented in government.
  - ivenkys 16y ago
    I don't mind a rag-tag coalition , my problem is with the stability of it. Its probably better for parties with at least a common minimum program to work together than two parties that have nothing in common trying to stick together and run a government for 5 years.
    - kmfrk 16y ago
      I guess the problem with Great Britain is that there are no recent historical accounts of it working combined with the fact that the economic crisis requires immediate, resolute action. Having the Lib-Dems be the king-makers at every election might be a weird case---assuming that no other popular parties begin emerging.
- wmoxam 16y ago
  It's the same issue here. Conservatives in power (right), Liberals in opposition (left/center) hold the bulk of the seats, NDP (left) and Bloc (left/separatists) hold the remainder. The NDP doesn't have enough seats to help the Cons on their own, and being propped up solely by separatists is seen as distasteful so support for a vote must come from either both smaller parties, or from the Liberals abstaining (the opposition looks bad when voting with the gov't!). Yet here we are, years later and for the most part it has worked ok. The biggest problem is that parties are always in semi-campaign mode as whenever a money vote is lost by the gov't we'll have an election. This has resulted in some stupidities like targeted tax credits for specific groups (ex: families with kids in sports) that are not good policy, but simply vote buying.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

ivenkys 16y ago

Its not necessarily a bad thing , the issue here is none of the other smaller parties have anything in common with the Tories,who look unlikely to form a govt. on their own. Of course, a rag-tag coalition ideologically opposite of each other might still work but not very well, i suspect.

kmfrk 16y ago
That is representative democracy in action. I don't mind that more than 35% of the British people are represented in government.
- ivenkys 16y ago
  I don't mind a rag-tag coalition , my problem is with the stability of it. Its probably better for parties with at least a common minimum program to work together than two parties that have nothing in common trying to stick together and run a government for 5 years.
  - kmfrk 16y ago
    I guess the problem with Great Britain is that there are no recent historical accounts of it working combined with the fact that the economic crisis requires immediate, resolute action. Having the Lib-Dems be the king-makers at every election might be a weird case---assuming that no other popular parties begin emerging.
wmoxam 16y ago
It's the same issue here. Conservatives in power (right), Liberals in opposition (left/center) hold the bulk of the seats, NDP (left) and Bloc (left/separatists) hold the remainder. The NDP doesn't have enough seats to help the Cons on their own, and being propped up solely by separatists is seen as distasteful so support for a vote must come from either both smaller parties, or from the Liberals abstaining (the opposition looks bad when voting with the gov't!). Yet here we are, years later and for the most part it has worked ok. The biggest problem is that parties are always in semi-campaign mode as whenever a money vote is lost by the gov't we'll have an election. This has resulted in some stupidities like targeted tax credits for specific groups (ex: families with kids in sports) that are not good policy, but simply vote buying.