Gordon Brown must turn election around, or resign as PM
With the British election chugging toward its May 6 conclusion, the looming near-certainty of a hung Parliament has Britons wondering precisely who will reside in Number 10 Downing Street come May 7.
With the most recent polls having Labour slide behind the Liberal Democratic Party for second place in this election, 27% to 29% -- with the Conservatives continuing to narrowly lead at 33%.
This clouds the question of who -- current Prime Minister Gordon Brown, David Cameron or Nick Clegg -- will be Prime Minister.
According to British Constitutional Convention, Brown would retain the office of Prime Minister under a hung Parliament, and Labour would receive the first opportunity to seek the confidence of Parliament.
That means that, if Brown can't turn his electoral fortunes around and David Cameron can't find a way to restore a strong lead, Labour could come in third in the election and retain government.
The tenuous position this would put Labour in could not even possibly give it the opportunity to govern.
For his own part, Clegg doesn't seem prepared to tolerate the prospect.
“It would be preposterous for Gordon Brown to end up like some squatter in Number 10 because of some constitutional nicety,” Clegg insisted.
If Gordon Brown continues to trail the Liberal Democrats after the election is concluded, he will have little choice but to resign the office of Prime Minister and allow another party to seek the confidence of Parliament.
To be the third-place party in Parliament and continue to govern is simply untenable on principle alone.
Friday, April 23, 2010
1 comment:
Post your comments, and join the discussion!
Be aware that spam posts and purile nonsense will not be tolerated, although purility within constructive commentary is encouraged.
All comments made by Kevron are deleted without being read. Also, if you begin your comment by saying "I know you'll just delete this", it will be deleted. Guaranteed. So don't be a dumbass.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I also believe that Britain is in the middle of a constitutional crisis but it goes wider than a minority Labour government. We are half way devolved and half way integrated with Europe. We are half way through reforming the House of Lords and Parliament. The English are the victims of tyranny - the last government had absolute power even though less than a quarter of the adult population voted for it and the Scots, who have their own Parliament, set the agenda for England. The crucial issue for Britain is electoral reform and constitutional reform so a hung parliament is a very good idea.
ReplyDeleteTwo political parties have rigged the voting system in the UK so that the other parties are marginalised. Both of these parties are rubbish, one being a club for "mummy's boys" and the other a gang of Marxist lunatics. They have set up the system so that you can choose between bad and worse so how do you vote?
Don't forget that it is the two old parties that have brought England to its present curious state. (See http://pol-check.blogspot.com/2009/01/could-credit-crunch-have-been-foreseen.html)