General Election 2015 official thread

So will this thread be shut at 10pm? Or are we waiting for all the results to come in? Or wait until a new government is formed?

Whatever happens, it's been pretty enjoyable and enlightening and always refreshing to hear other people's perspectives and situations. I might not seem particularly open-minded at times but to be honest I just enjoy a good discussion and a lot of the time I just play Devil's advocate. Most people on here are decent people with convictions and they're the kind of voters we need in this country. No hard feelings to those who I've butted heads with, even if things did sometimes get heated, but after tomorrow I won't even care if this thread happened or not, at the end of the day we're all Charlton and that's the important thing

It's quite refreshing to have had a good political debate on here that hasn't gotten too heated, proves we are not all complete morons

InSollyWeTrust said:

Voted Conservative, Will be close but think Tories will edge it.

Do you mean you think the Tories will win a majority of the seats? Or will form part of a coalition (if so, with whom?)? Or will form a minority government?

How many seats does a party need to form a minority government? And how do they get approved?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minority_government

Technically speaking if all seats were distributed evenly between 6 main parties you could form a minority government with little over 100 seats. Or am I talking nonsense?

@AFKABartram I dunno if its my eyes but the lab/con colours are the wrong way round. That'll piss a few of the freaks on here right off.

ValleyGary said:

@AFKABartram I dunno if its my eyes but the lab/con colours are the wrong way round. That'll piss a few of the freaks on here right off.

Just saw, a nice irony. Would have reordered if I knew the colours were done that way

Jints said:

Fiiish said:

I think feasibly speaking unless some kind of supply & confidence agreement is obtained in advance, only the largest party can realistically form a minority government. Analysts predict that in the likely event of a minority government calling a snap election because it has lost the ability to govern effectively, voters will take it out on the smaller parties to ensure there is a clear winner second time round.

A government can no longer call a snap election due to the awful fixed term Parliament Act that the coalition passed. A two thirds majority is required to dissolve Parliament unless a motion of no confidence is passed AND after a 14 day cooling off period nobody else can form a government. Hopefully, it will be repealed a soon as possible in the next Parliament. Two thirds majorities are so unBritish.

Well that too, but if a minority Tory government holds its hands up and says it isn't going to govern any longer, what parties are going to vote against the motion to dissolve Parliament?

Red_in_SE8 said:

My prediction. I think the Tory/Lib Lab coalition will scrape through. I think a lot the seats that pollsters are predicting the Lib Dems will lose will in fact stay Lib Dem because of massive tactical voting by traditional conservative voters.

I think a Tory/Lib Lab has every chance of scraping through! I assume you meant Tory/Lib Dem.

Fiiish said:

Jints said:

Fiiish said:

I think feasibly speaking unless some kind of supply & confidence agreement is obtained in advance, only the largest party can realistically form a minority government. Analysts predict that in the likely event of a minority government calling a snap election because it has lost the ability to govern effectively, voters will take it out on the smaller parties to ensure there is a clear winner second time round.

A government can no longer call a snap election due to the awful fixed term Parliament Act that the coalition passed. A two thirds majority is required to dissolve Parliament unless a motion of no confidence is passed AND after a 14 day cooling off period nobody else can form a government. Hopefully, it will be repealed a soon as possible in the next Parliament. Two thirds majorities are so unBritish.

Well that too, but if a minority Tory government holds its hands up and says it isn't going to govern any longer, what parties are going to vote against the motion to dissolve Parliament?

Any party behind in the polls would be my guess.

sadiejane1981 said:

It's quite refreshing to have had a good political debate on here that hasn't gotten too heated, proves we are not all complete morons

I reserve the right to be a complete moron.

Fiiish said:

I think feasibly speaking unless some kind of supply & confidence agreement is obtained in advance, only the largest party can realistically form a minority government.

I don't agree with this bit. It's perfectly possibly for the second-largest party to form a minority government. This is, in fact, one of the (less likely) options that Gordon Brown considered after the last election. The supporters of the larger party would, of course, bleat that it's unconstitutional. But, the last (current) coalition could be described in the same way, as it ignores the second-largest party, but includes the third-largest. So, "feasibly speaking", it is perfectly within the bounds of possibility for a party other than the largest party to form a minority government.

Fiiish said:

... a minority government calling a snap election because it has lost the ability to govern effectively...

This can't happen any more as the Royal Prerogative (which is what this type of snap election was based on) is no longer constitutional for the dissolution of a Parliament. This is the first election that is impacted by the Fixed Term Parliament Act and it's already causing constitutional questions. And it's not due to have any kind of review until after the *next* election, due on 7 May 2020.