Lucy, whilst I agree that even in the first past the post system the smaller parties can hold the balance of power in the event of a hung parliament, the last time this happened was back in 1974 when the UK had two general elections in one year. The second one paving the way for the coalition between Labour and the Liberals.
Over the past Thirty years the whole political landscape had changed and as a result we have a so-called “Labour party” emulating the policies of the Tories in order to get elected. Up to now it has worked for them. During the Nineties, the Tories abandoned core principles, which cost them millions of votes. The voters by-passed the Libs who were originally the preferred alternative to Labour, which meant the Libs also had to change their approach as people bought into the “New Labour” agenda.
The Liberal Democrats -the third largest party in Britain have shifted so far to the left in recent times that they are now occupying ground once thought of by “Old Labour” die-hards as extreme, and are trying to portray themselves as a credible alternative. How can they be when their ideas are straight out of the Seventies?
Their approach is far more left of centre than the old “Liberal” Party and I don’t think it will win much needed support from the public at large Yes they did win in the recent Brent East by-election but going back to my earlier point, Brent constantly voted for Red Ken Livingstone, therefore it’s not hard to work out that voters in Brent East are by-and-large very left-wing.
I genuinely do not want to get into a slanging match about the Lib Dems, but if you think I’m being biased against them then look at their policies, it’s frightening.
As far as I can remember, Italy has a system of PR in government, yet they cant agree at the best of times even when their government is based on consensus. They have very unstable government and it’s not uncommon to see their MP’s literally slugging it out against one another in the chamber during a crunch vote (see links below) – makes our parliament seem tame.
Maybe you’re right Lucy, PR may not be as boring as I’ve made out.
Dazza
cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/11/08/italy.fight/
parliament.the-stationery-of … als-2.html
repubblica.it/online/politic … pugni.html