The UK election result is a hung parliament, as suspected. Though the term may avail itself to juvenile humor, it isn’t funny. The last hung parliament (as a result of a General Election) occurred in 1974, and had to be resolved by a special election eight months later. I’ll be giving a free brush up on what the terms mean, so you won’t have to give me any instant cash to do so. (You can if you want to though.)
The UK election elects a hung parliament
The UK election results have failed to establish an absolute majority in British Parliament, meaning they have a hung parliament. Unless something is done about it, Great Britain has a Parliament that can’t do anything. Oh, and it may bear mention that means they can’t, in essence, pick a Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer (Treasurer), or anything else. A hung parliament is a hamstrung government in Great Britain.
Welcome to Comparative World Governments 101
In short, whichever party wins the most seats in UK elections gets to form the government (Prime Minister and so forth). When there isn’t an absolute majority, that means that regardless of who actually got the most votes, they won’t be able to do much of anything because everyone else outnumbers them. If that happens, like it has now, the winning party can try to make it work with a minority government (that rarely works) a coalition government by making strategic agreements, or just have a new election.
What happened?
In the 2010 UK General Election (held every five years), the Conservative Party, headed by David Cameron, won more seats than the Labor Party and incumbent Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Labor dropped to 29.3% of Parliament seats, and Conservative boosted their stake to 36.1% of the seats. Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats bagged almost 23% of the seats. Though the Conservative Party holds more seats than the others, they both out number Conservative seats, so no absolute majority exists.
So how does the end of the beginning proceed?
Conservative leader David Cameron is offering to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, according to The Guardian. There will be conditions, but it’s a work in progress to create a new British Government.
Sources
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/may/07/general-election-2010-cameron-liberal-democrat-coalition
