Dazza:
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.
In what way does this preclude it from happening again? 
Over the past Thirty years the whole political landscape had changed and as a result we have a so-called āLabour partyā 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 āNew Labourā agenda.
Maybe this is precisely why a healthy dose of āconcensus politicsā is what we needā¦the whole political landscape in this country is now so homogenised that many die-hard party supporters are no longer aware what it is that they are voting inā¦ 
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 āOld Labourā 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?
Very true. But what is the relevance of the Seventies reference? Just because ideas were workable/unworkable at one time doesnāt mean they will be workable/unworkable for all timesā¦ 
Their approach is far more left of centre than the old āLiberalā Party and I donāt 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 itās not hard to work out that voters in Brent East are by-and-large very left-wing.
True again. That doesnāt mean that there arenāt others who are starting to think the same way for want of a credible alternative.
I genuinely do not want to get into a slanging match about the Lib Dems, but if you think Iām being biased against them then look at their policies, itās frightening.
Neither do I, which is why I am not expressing a personal bias one way or the other - simply playing Devilās Advocate because I find it entertaining to do soā¦ 
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 itās not uncommon to see their MPās literally slugging it out against one another in the chamber during a crunch vote (see links below) ā makes our parliament seem tame.
I stand corrected on that one. I genuinely thought that Italy were also running a Constituency-based system. 
Maybe youāre right Lucy, PR may not be as boring as Iāve made out.
You took the words right out of my mouthā¦