General Chat

Linda, no news over here yet, but I assume that you are heading for a Hung Parliament?

Allan

It does look like that Allan, which would seem to be a very unfortunate occurrence.

I must love you and leave you (metaphorically speaking - in case Mrs Allan chases me). I must get my act together before OH starts mumbling about the time I spend on the computer

Fully understood Linda :0))

We have the same problem here with a shared computer!

Thank you for the update, but it doesn't sound promising

Regards

Allan

I am glad that you got it sorted CC

Well- that was an interesting day - I suppose.
Now we have a hung parliament, it will be interesting to see if the Liberals accept the Conservatives invitation to jump into bed with them to form a working Government.
The next few months should be interesting - one can only remain optimistic, and hope for the best.

Tec.

Hello everyone. This darn site is making me tear my hair out. The delay after you've typed in the reply box makes chatting very difficult. Being the most unpolitical of people could you explain the term "hung parliament" to me please.

Sue xx

Good mornin,Sue, it means that no party has an absolute majority.

One may have enough of a majority to form a government but they don't have the numbers to pass legislation should all the other non-governing members of the varoius parties form an alliance!

A bit like the situation with some Staes here. WA is an example where the government does not have an asolute majority and has a deal with the Nationals: a so called coaliton govrnment

Allan

Good evening Sue and Tec, the site is fine for me Sue.

Hung parliament is where no party has an overall majority over the others. They can only get things through by getting the help of some of the smaller parties

Thank you Allan and Linda. I take it then that the main parties now have to "crawl" to the smaller parties and beg them to join them and build up the numbers? This would be while keeping their own identities and policies?

Sue xx

Good Morning Sue, and Allan,

To form a working majority in the House of Commons, a political party needs to have at least 326 elected Members of Parliament.
Today the Conservatives won 306 seats,
Labour 255 seats,
Liberals 55 seats,
Therefore no party won enough seats to govern the country in its own right.
Now the Conservatives have invited the Liberals to join them in order to form a working majority.
This means that both parties will have to agree to compromise some of their policies in order to be able to work together.

This is what is called a "Hung Parliament" History has shown that these arrangements do not normally last long - so we could be having to do it all over again between 12 - 18 months time.

Meanwhile Gordon Brown the Labour leader remains Prime Minister until something is agreed.

Tec

My apologies: I'm forgetting my manners

Good evening Linda and Tec

Allan

It can be quite nauseating Sue - watching the behaviour of the two majority parties trying to get various others to join them. People that they would not have had on their team no matter what now become so much better when they want something.

Good morning and good evening all.

Persey

Good Evening Linda,

Are you, like me, suffering from political overdose? lol.

Tec.

I am tired Tec, I stayed it up far too late watching it. We get to vote in three weeks because of the delayed election here. Luckily we will be on holiday so will miss lots of it

Good morning Persey

It works out quite well in WA, particularly as has happened recently when the National party, as part of the State Government actually voted with Labor on a couple of issues.

The leader of the WA Nationals is a young chap, Brendon Grylls but he refuses to be intimidated by either party.

Strange to think that he holds the balance of power when there are only a handful of National members in State Parliament

Allan

Good Morning Persey,

I quite agree, it is nauseating to see people who normally spend their lives screaming at each other in Parliament, suddenly become able to work together when power is the issue.

Tec.

Now I know why I'm not really into politics although I do take some interest and I strongly believe in compulsory voting.

The day is shaping up to be another lovely autumn day. The sun is warm but it's getting very cool at night and early morning.

Last night I went to yoga again with my daughter. I really enjoyed it and came home very relaxed. Which is good as I had an argument with live-in son yesterday morning which was quite upsetting. He swore as he walked away and although he said he swore out of anger and that he didn't actually direct it at me I was hurt as he's never done that before. He did apologise and I accepted it but I said that swearing at me was unacceptable and to be fair he agreed. We rarely argue so it left me feeling upset all day.

Sue xx

Then who is in power etc affects stock & share values and the monetary rates. Every evening on TV we get the ups and downs and most of it is wheelbarrow to me - as all I know is when I go to the supermarket the following week at least one of my every week items will have increased in price.

Though one supermarket I go to it is a bit like Russian roulette with the cost of butter - it goes up a phenomenal amount and then a week or so later goes back down below what it was charging before - must drive the shelf pricing people and the stock to bar coding people to distraction.

Took me ages to get back in here again after it behaving so well this morning for me.

Persey

It is taking me ages to type Perse, nothing to do with the site which is actually very fast. My problem is that I am so tired that I can't type without making mistakes

I am going to bed now, I hope that you sort things out with your son Sue.

Good night Linda. Already sorted with my son.

Persey - therein lies one of the problems. The unrest in the financial sector. I'm thinking a hung parliament isn't going to inspire confidence in the world market.

Sue xx