Britons confused, their parliament hung
Monday, 10 May 2010
Maswood Alam Khan
VOTERS never wish their parliament were ever hung; neither do they want an immediate second election to tip the balance so hung. Voters want to see a strong leadership of the law makers who can comfortably work for their benefits and pass the laws necessary. That is what the peculiarity of multiparty democracy is. Britons on Thursday were perhaps not confident which party could really deliver that strong leadership. British voters turned up in record numbers in the polling booths, but they were confused and equivocal. So, none of the political parties could earn 326 seats required for an absolute majority in the House of Commons, to be powerful enough to run the government. With the Conservative Party having 306 seats, Labour Party 258, Liberal Democrat 57, Scottish National Party 6, Plaid Cymru 3 and others 19 Britain is now faced with a hung parliament, a precarious situation their government didn't face during the last 36 years.
The next few days, or maybe weeks, for Britain are highly uncertain and commentators have started forecasting another election if the winning political parties fail to form an effective coalition government. The election result does not augur well for the British at a time when the countries under European Union need strong governments with Greece already attacked by a financial Ebola and other countries like Spain about to be attacked by the deadly financial disease. Europeans are bracing for an outbreak of a financial epidemic as EU members are tense with a sense of foreboding that the virus of financial Ebola may soon attack the rest of Europe.
Conservative leader David Cameron said Labour Party, the party of the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, had lost their right to power, after the Tories gained the most seats in the election. The Conservative leader David Cameron has offered to make a deal with the Liberal Democrats, in short Lib Dem, to form a government, while Brown has agreed to wait for those talks, while holding out a hand to the Lib Dems in case they fail. Gordon Brown has lost his ability to lead the Labour Party in Britain to its fourth straight parliamentary majority, though it is not yet clear which party would ultimately occupy the treasury benches in the British parliament.
With 306 seats the Conservatives are now the strongest party in terms of numerical majority and short of only 20 seats for absolute majority in the parliament. The Conservatives cannot hope to be comfortable in running the government even if they join hands with the center-left Liberal Democrats to form a coalition government that must be fragile and uneasy as the Conservatives will find it hard to tune in to the wavelengths of the Lib Dems on crucial issues like tax reforms, financial regulations and the timing of needed spending cuts.
The Labour Party faced the setback because the party perhaps lost its sense of direction and ran out of ideas after 13 years in power. On the other hand, the Conservatives could not convince voters that they had actually been ridden of their harsh Thacherite past. The hero in the election has been the Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg who could generate excitements among the young voters, though most voters decided not to take a chance on Lib Dem, an inexperienced party.
The UK election marked the moment when leadership of the country is going to be passed from the Baby Boom Generation (those aged 56 to 67 years old) to the Generation Jones (those aged 43 to 55 years old). The Baby Boomers, who were born during the Post-World War II baby boom period and were teenagers in the 1960s, for the last few decades ruled the whole world; they tended to think themselves as a special generation, way brighter and smarter than their predecessors; they held the sterling positions in the domains of academia, politics and business.
But the time has changed. Roles of famous Baby Boomers like Bill Clinton, Prince Charles, Vladimir Putin or Tony Blair are gradually dimming with the rise of the Generation Jones known by its acronym _GenJones_. This is the age of the GenJonesers like Obama, Sarkozy and Merkel.
Approximately 1 in 4 UK voters are GenJonesers. Evidently, GenJonesers are going to dominate in the British government from now on as many Baby Boomer MPs have already been replaced by GenJoneser MPs in the British parliament and the Conservative leader David Cameron, a GenJoneser himself, may be the next British Prime Minister with the support from Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, another GenJoneser, if their talks lead towards a coalition government! The maiden transition of leadership in Britain from one old generation of Baby Boomers to a new generation of GenJonesers also speaks about why the voters were a little confused and dicey while casting their votes for or against the GenJonesers, sadly resulting in a hung parliament.
It seems David Cameron and Nick Clegg would actually do the business together as they on Saturday had an opportunity to look each other in the eye. They both must have backing from their supporters; they must find out areas of commonalties where they could agree to work together. But observers are still skeptic about a probability or the longevity of a partnership government while they point their fingers to all the precedents---in 1910, 1923, 1929 and 1974---when it was always a minority government and not a coalition that had run the United Kingdom.
However, whoever forms the next British government will scarcely find their honeymooning time pleasant as the next few months may be extremely trying times for them when they would have to prescribe some bitter pills for Britons to gulp, a painful job of reducing Britain's 11.50 percent budget deficit that would require agonising cuts in public sector jobs, wages, health etc. Taking austerity measures without choking off economic growth and placing the heavy burdens on those least able to bear them is a job that would not be so easy for the next British prime minister who watched the violent street protests and three deaths in Greece only the other day.
E-mail : maswood@hotmail.com
VOTERS never wish their parliament were ever hung; neither do they want an immediate second election to tip the balance so hung. Voters want to see a strong leadership of the law makers who can comfortably work for their benefits and pass the laws necessary. That is what the peculiarity of multiparty democracy is. Britons on Thursday were perhaps not confident which party could really deliver that strong leadership. British voters turned up in record numbers in the polling booths, but they were confused and equivocal. So, none of the political parties could earn 326 seats required for an absolute majority in the House of Commons, to be powerful enough to run the government. With the Conservative Party having 306 seats, Labour Party 258, Liberal Democrat 57, Scottish National Party 6, Plaid Cymru 3 and others 19 Britain is now faced with a hung parliament, a precarious situation their government didn't face during the last 36 years.
The next few days, or maybe weeks, for Britain are highly uncertain and commentators have started forecasting another election if the winning political parties fail to form an effective coalition government. The election result does not augur well for the British at a time when the countries under European Union need strong governments with Greece already attacked by a financial Ebola and other countries like Spain about to be attacked by the deadly financial disease. Europeans are bracing for an outbreak of a financial epidemic as EU members are tense with a sense of foreboding that the virus of financial Ebola may soon attack the rest of Europe.
Conservative leader David Cameron said Labour Party, the party of the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, had lost their right to power, after the Tories gained the most seats in the election. The Conservative leader David Cameron has offered to make a deal with the Liberal Democrats, in short Lib Dem, to form a government, while Brown has agreed to wait for those talks, while holding out a hand to the Lib Dems in case they fail. Gordon Brown has lost his ability to lead the Labour Party in Britain to its fourth straight parliamentary majority, though it is not yet clear which party would ultimately occupy the treasury benches in the British parliament.
With 306 seats the Conservatives are now the strongest party in terms of numerical majority and short of only 20 seats for absolute majority in the parliament. The Conservatives cannot hope to be comfortable in running the government even if they join hands with the center-left Liberal Democrats to form a coalition government that must be fragile and uneasy as the Conservatives will find it hard to tune in to the wavelengths of the Lib Dems on crucial issues like tax reforms, financial regulations and the timing of needed spending cuts.
The Labour Party faced the setback because the party perhaps lost its sense of direction and ran out of ideas after 13 years in power. On the other hand, the Conservatives could not convince voters that they had actually been ridden of their harsh Thacherite past. The hero in the election has been the Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg who could generate excitements among the young voters, though most voters decided not to take a chance on Lib Dem, an inexperienced party.
The UK election marked the moment when leadership of the country is going to be passed from the Baby Boom Generation (those aged 56 to 67 years old) to the Generation Jones (those aged 43 to 55 years old). The Baby Boomers, who were born during the Post-World War II baby boom period and were teenagers in the 1960s, for the last few decades ruled the whole world; they tended to think themselves as a special generation, way brighter and smarter than their predecessors; they held the sterling positions in the domains of academia, politics and business.
But the time has changed. Roles of famous Baby Boomers like Bill Clinton, Prince Charles, Vladimir Putin or Tony Blair are gradually dimming with the rise of the Generation Jones known by its acronym _GenJones_. This is the age of the GenJonesers like Obama, Sarkozy and Merkel.
Approximately 1 in 4 UK voters are GenJonesers. Evidently, GenJonesers are going to dominate in the British government from now on as many Baby Boomer MPs have already been replaced by GenJoneser MPs in the British parliament and the Conservative leader David Cameron, a GenJoneser himself, may be the next British Prime Minister with the support from Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, another GenJoneser, if their talks lead towards a coalition government! The maiden transition of leadership in Britain from one old generation of Baby Boomers to a new generation of GenJonesers also speaks about why the voters were a little confused and dicey while casting their votes for or against the GenJonesers, sadly resulting in a hung parliament.
It seems David Cameron and Nick Clegg would actually do the business together as they on Saturday had an opportunity to look each other in the eye. They both must have backing from their supporters; they must find out areas of commonalties where they could agree to work together. But observers are still skeptic about a probability or the longevity of a partnership government while they point their fingers to all the precedents---in 1910, 1923, 1929 and 1974---when it was always a minority government and not a coalition that had run the United Kingdom.
However, whoever forms the next British government will scarcely find their honeymooning time pleasant as the next few months may be extremely trying times for them when they would have to prescribe some bitter pills for Britons to gulp, a painful job of reducing Britain's 11.50 percent budget deficit that would require agonising cuts in public sector jobs, wages, health etc. Taking austerity measures without choking off economic growth and placing the heavy burdens on those least able to bear them is a job that would not be so easy for the next British prime minister who watched the violent street protests and three deaths in Greece only the other day.
E-mail : maswood@hotmail.com