ernie………..defeated on 2 nights running 🙄

Ernie, I wasn't saying you were "stating the bleeding obvious", in fact exactly the opposite. It is far from obvious to me (who tries to watch politics carefully from a reasonably non-partisan position), that Labour have been serious about PR.
Maybe what makes me a little cynical about Labours recent conversions to being PR evangelists is that Mandelson was saying at just after 2200 on election night that PR was a priority for Labour. Sorry but thats naked, subtle as a brick posturing to sweeten the Lib Dems.

I can't blame the libdems for being cheesed off at getting so little power for so many votes.

Having looked into PR, I am increasingly taken by AV or AV+.

ton me ol' mucker……I don't care how many times I am "defeated". I know it's a concept which you probably can't get your head round, but just accept that not everyone is as insecure as you are.

ernie, i was only playing with you.
sorry……… 😀

I you had met Ton, you would know that there are few who are as non-insecure (did I get the right amount of double negatives there?) as him.
In fact assuredness in spadefuls is the man!

In fact he's like Desparate Dan, but with bikes instead of pies. Dan has a new pie in each weeks episode. Ton has a new… oh hang on.

ernie, i was only playing with you.

LOL ! You always catch me out mate …………damn you with your razor-sharp intellect !

No seriously, will I ever learn ! 😀

damn you with your razor-sharp intellect !

ernie…condescension is a bad thing…. 🙂

Absolutely………..try dry heat.

I take it people agree that a minority government is useless ? So why do people want PR ?

"minority government is useless ? So why do people want PR ?"

In FPP voting, you can force out a minority Govt with a prospect of new elections knowing you will probably get a majority. So minority Govt is useless in FP systems.

Under PR and even STV, they are the norm and work. The nature of debate in the Commons would change from "Yahboo" confrontations to negotiation. It's politics for grown-ups.

>I take it people agree that a minority government is useless ?

No, mainly those that have something to lose from it.
Or too dim to realise that it can work otherwise.

There *are* 'poor' examples of coalition governments, but IMO they just reflect the diversity of the population they represent (or to put it another way, they get the government they deserve).

If the bunch of twunts in the uk realise that they have to work together, so much the better – surely Parliament's there to act on a balance of opinions, rather than toeing the party line all the time.

Clegg can't just sidle with who he wants AFAIK

He has to get the agreement of his MPs & then the committee that runs the party have to agree & after all that, the party membership have to agree

so it's not Clegg's executive choice

I do hope they form a government with the Tories, it'll pull itself apart as they're just too fundamentally different
The Libs – as a whole – are are lot more left wing than the parties image & the Tories are a lot more right wing than Dave & Gideon would have you believe
Sounds like the perfect storm to me 🙂

Given the current numbers, a LabLib coalition will be too weak

so …
let the Tories have it for a year or so, it'll finish them off for another generation with any luck

Although I suspect that the Libs will [as ever] sit on the fence wringing their hands on this one

Some interesting analysis of the vote over the last 80 years: http://ablog.typepad.com/keytrendsinglobalisation/2010/05/trends-in-the-british-general-election-are-no-surprise-part-2.html