Question: Who is arguing the most against a hung parliament?

Answer: David Cameron and Gordon Brown.

If this election was to be have won by anyone, then it was David Cameron’s to win. He has however been unable to convince the nation as a whole that he is the person to take the nation forward. The consequence is that we are now in ‘hung parliament’ territory. This means that no major party is likely to have a clear majority after the election and so the main parties will have to negotiate between themselves as to how they share power in the forthcoming government.

Is this such a bad thing for Britain? The electoral system at present is set up in a way that it is skewed towards majority government, it allows parties which have small shares of the national vote to command large majorities in the House of Commons. This has allowed parties with weak mandates to railroad through major pieces of legislation and has worked against government by consensus. As we are at present in a managerial-type of politics – meaning that there is little ideological difference between the main parties, rather the differences focus on different approaches to managing the state – a coalition government may be a good way to check against any irrational tendencies in government. The major mistakes of Labour in government have been possible because it was able to command a majority in government which gave it a measure of confidence that prevented it from realising its own mistakes. Coalition government may also force the parties to tackle the problems in the financial and political systems that remain.

Another disadvantage of the present system is the party in power feels the need to assert some form of distinctiveness which in the recent past can only be described as extreme measures. Coalition government removes the pressure to assert distinctiveness and may therefore be a good thing. Voting for an MP may depend more therefore on the type of candidate that is available to a local constituency than the national party. A new group of strong and sensible candidates who are not tribal in their political allegiance may actually lead to a better House of Commons.