Posted on 05/08/2010 5:44:46 AM PDT by iowamark
Nick Clegg today said that he would push for "fundamental" reform of the British electoral system as he weighs up a power-sharing deal with the Conservative party after the election ended in a hung parliament.
The Liberal Democrat leader is holding a series of meetings with senior members of his party today in which he will attempt to win their backing for his strategy on forming a new government with either the Tories or Labour.
Arriving for the meeting with his frontbench MPs at the Local Government Association in Westminster this morning, Clegg insisted that the Lib Dems would be “very much making the case for the four big priorities” identified in their manifesto. They are fairer taxes, help for disadvantaged schoolchildren, a green economy and “fundamental political reform”....
Cracks could emerge on just how far the Conservatives will go on electoral reform.
The Lib Dems will feel that David Cameron's offer of an all-party committee of enquiry into whether voting reform should take place falls short of their requirement of pushing through proportional representation - and scrapping the "first past the post" system...
The two parties are poles apart on several other issues including immigration, the EU and defence, and the Lib Dems would struggle to find any common ground with the Tories on scrapping the Trident nuclear defence system or offering an amnesty for illegal immigrants.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Parliamentary democracy= epic fail.
The election produced the worst possible outcome at a time when Britain needs a solid government that can face the fiscal mess that the Blair/Brown regime produced.
Blair/Brown did to Britain what Obama/Pelosi/Reid are doing to the United States. We at least have the prospect of a decisive election in November. Heaven help us if we don’t get one.
I agree with your sentiment, but why would God want to help us after we have turn our back on Him? Perhaps 0 is God's judgment on a nation.
Actually...there is a twist to this mess. If Clegg say “no” to Cameron and climbs on the Brown-express....it’s guaranteed within a year...to be another election. Most everyone hates Brown, and it gets worse month by month. So keeping Brown around for twelve more months...would help alot in a 2011 election for Clegg. That would be my tactic.
Clegg got all those early votes when the media was praising him to the skies.
By the time reality set in the momentum for Cameron was lost.
That said, Cameron hiring Anita Dunn as his campaign advisor has to be one of the dumbest moves ever.
If I was Cameron/the Tories I would make Clegg a reasonbable offer to share power, but with the clear understanding that the Liberal Dems will have to accept much less than they are demanding in order to have a seat at the table. If they balk and say “no” and then form a very complicated coalition with Brown then so be it, that government would be led by two losers (Brown and Clegg) who would have no mandate whatsoever. There would be a new election within 6 months to a year, and hopefully then the Tories, led by Cameron or Hague, would sweep to victory. My one cent.
I wonder if some individual LibDem MPs would be interested in switching parties to Conservative, just enough to push them over the top.
I’m sure Cameron’s trying to work any angle he can, within reason.
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