Historically, the UK has been in effect a two-party system - Labour vs Conservative, for about the last 120 years - before that it was Whigs vs Tories, roughly equal to Lib vs Con. The only exception to this was the Second World War, when Churchill headed a coalition.
This works well when one party is able to get an overall majority - this has become more difficult, however, with the rise of a number of smaller parties. Though the LibDems are the largest of these, there are also Welsh, Scottish and Irish nationalist parties - and more than one Irish one, a complication I won't go into here. Then there is the occasional Independent candidate and, this time around, the first Green MP.
So that's one pressure - but the more important one is that there is far less ideological difference between the two big parties than there once was. After Blair's modernisation of the Labour Party led to the 1996 Election victory it was clear that the party was moving away from its old corporatist, trade-union driven structure and reinventing itself as left of centre. The Conservatives have been through a similar process, dropping the extremes of Thatcherism for a more caring image, though this remains to be tested in power.
Therefore, Con, Lab and LibDem are all fighting over much the same turf, just as small, issue-driven parties are becoming more powerful. Hence the mess we now have.
The last time there was a serious attempt at a two-party deal was back in the 70s, when Labour made a pact with the Liberals. It wasn't a great success. The two parties quarreled for a few months, then there was another election and Labour got a majority of 4, which was further eroded as older MPs died and there were by-elections. By the end of that Govt every vote was a drama, with people being wheeled in on their deathbeds by the Whips.
As you've noted, in this respect we do differ from other European countries, and it doesn't help that we tend to muddle through on custom and precedent rather than have a constitution. This whole sorry mess, in the opinion of many, myself included, shows that the rules have changed and it's time for a rethink. The effect of the TV debates was underestimated. Far from turning it into a Presidential-style race focussing on the party leaders, it seems to have galvanized people into taking an intelligent interest. Turnout was high - so much so that the Electoral Commission screwed up and in some constituencies the polls closed while hundreds of people were still queuing to vote. So, that was one shibboleth down the drain. Hopefully the one that we don't do coalitions in the UK will be next to go.
Though I'm a Labour supporter, I don't want to see a deal where the party clings to power by courting Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish nationalist votes. It's already been pointed out that this would focus the brunt of the inevitable cuts in public spending on the English. Northern Ireland in particular has a huge public sector, since their economy tanked during the Troubles, and they would fight hard to escape the cuts.
Cynical though it sounds, I'd much rather see Cameron get into No 10, do everything that has to be done and make the Tories so unpopular that they don't get re-elected for 20 years. Labour would never have had such a run of election victories if it hadn't been for people's memories of Thatcher. I think that if Labour muddle through and cling to power we are in for a rocky ride as one public sector union after another calls out its members on strike as they attempt to delay the inevitable cuts in wages, employment and pensions.
Sorry I didn't get onto electoral boundaries, I have to go to work now.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2010-05-11 10:48 am (UTC)This works well when one party is able to get an overall majority - this has become more difficult, however, with the rise of a number of smaller parties. Though the LibDems are the largest of these, there are also Welsh, Scottish and Irish nationalist parties - and more than one Irish one, a complication I won't go into here. Then there is the occasional Independent candidate and, this time around, the first Green MP.
So that's one pressure - but the more important one is that there is far less ideological difference between the two big parties than there once was. After Blair's modernisation of the Labour Party led to the 1996 Election victory it was clear that the party was moving away from its old corporatist, trade-union driven structure and reinventing itself as left of centre. The Conservatives have been through a similar process, dropping the extremes of Thatcherism for a more caring image, though this remains to be tested in power.
Therefore, Con, Lab and LibDem are all fighting over much the same turf, just as small, issue-driven parties are becoming more powerful. Hence the mess we now have.
The last time there was a serious attempt at a two-party deal was back in the 70s, when Labour made a pact with the Liberals. It wasn't a great success. The two parties quarreled for a few months, then there was another election and Labour got a majority of 4, which was further eroded as older MPs died and there were by-elections. By the end of that Govt every vote was a drama, with people being wheeled in on their deathbeds by the Whips.
As you've noted, in this respect we do differ from other European countries, and it doesn't help that we tend to muddle through on custom and precedent rather than have a constitution. This whole sorry mess, in the opinion of many, myself included, shows that the rules have changed and it's time for a rethink. The effect of the TV debates was underestimated. Far from turning it into a Presidential-style race focussing on the party leaders, it seems to have galvanized people into taking an intelligent interest. Turnout was high - so much so that the Electoral Commission screwed up and in some constituencies the polls closed while hundreds of people were still queuing to vote. So, that was one shibboleth down the drain. Hopefully the one that we don't do coalitions in the UK will be next to go.
Though I'm a Labour supporter, I don't want to see a deal where the party clings to power by courting Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish nationalist votes. It's already been pointed out that this would focus the brunt of the inevitable cuts in public spending on the English. Northern Ireland in particular has a huge public sector, since their economy tanked during the Troubles, and they would fight hard to escape the cuts.
Cynical though it sounds, I'd much rather see Cameron get into No 10, do everything that has to be done and make the Tories so unpopular that they don't get re-elected for 20 years. Labour would never have had such a run of election victories if it hadn't been for people's memories of Thatcher. I think that if Labour muddle through and cling to power we are in for a rocky ride as one public sector union after another calls out its members on strike as they attempt to delay the inevitable cuts in wages, employment and pensions.
Sorry I didn't get onto electoral boundaries, I have to go to work now.