Wes Tender

They have to do nothing of the sort. They could govern as a minority government if the other parties could not agree to join together. Or they could just bide their time while the Lab/Lib pact tears itself apart again. Alternatively, they could invite a few of the better MPs from the other two main parties to govern with them, no strings attached. Perhaps they might accept because they would have a cabinet post and the ability to have a role in government.

The system seems to work perfectly well in Bath, doesn't it? Why don't a majority of other constituencies wish to follow their example and elect Lib/Dems then? Could it be that they don't like their policies?

If you're going to dress it up in that extreme way, that anybody who administers a smack to a naughty child is a thug , then frankly I wonder what sort of teacher you are. Yes, you are there to teach and so what happens when troublesome pupils deliberately disrupt the classroom knowing full well that there is little that their teachers can apply in the way of sanctions? Many generations of pupils went through their education when the headmaster administered six of the best outside his study. The vast majority would tell you that it did them no harm. My, how things have changed in society. Nowadays, if a teacher dared to chastise a child in that way, he would either find himself on an assault charge, or the brat's dad would storm into the school and assault the teacher. If you do not believe in mild corporal punishment as a solution to these discipline problems, then tell us how you would address them?

Ah, so you have that perception about the place too...

As you say, they have had all of that time to make those changes and it therefore smacks of hypocrisy that they are acquiescent to it now. It rather smacks of a desperation to cling to power rather than a reforming zeal, doesn't it? But if you consider that a hung Parliament is not a good thing, then the result of electoral reform is likely to encourage that to happen much more often, with the added disadvantage that several of the more extreme parties of both the left and right might also gain influence.

Why unfortunately? The voting public have told Brown that they don't want him, the Lib/Dem vote has either not moved or gone down too. Surely there is a lot to be said for letting them get on with it, angering the public enough that they can get a much bigger working majority in a few months time.

The Android and Azougy, in fact. The dream team. If anybody can mess with the figures, those two can.

But it's Brighton for crissakes. Where else would the Greens have a snowball's chance in hell of winning?

Yes, I believe that is what will happen. And it's what I would like to happen too. Let them make a mess of sorting out the mess Gordon made and then be tainted by it. When it is found to be unworkable, we can do it all again within a few months and this time those who voted tactically and found that they voted for Brown to remain, will be a bit more sensible.

I feel the same about the slimey creep. He is testament to the lack of moral fibre and ethics that exists in many of our Parliamentary representatives. Few other MPs could have been involved with the sort of scandal that has tainted him and still not be seen as a liability by their Party. But because of the debt they owe him as a succesful spin doctor making them electable as New Labour, Blair and now Brown probably feel his worth to them outweighs the detrimental affect on Labour. I think that they're wrong and that he has helped them to this dismal defeat.

Far be it for me to question what the Guardian says, but I have a strong feeling that GM is right and that the doubling of the debt (exactly) is more than a mere coincidence. Rather than it being money owed to them on taxes not paid on image rights, etc, surely it is far more realistically the 100% penalty imposed on them for not paying their tax debt.

Oh, I don't know. Jacqui Smith and Opek whatshisname losing their seats was pretty good news too.

You're obviously not very wide awake this morning. The Green's success was at the expense of Labour. HTH

But I do feel like gloating, strange as it might seem to you. There wasn't a landslide because there was too high a mountain to climb, but if they take 100 seats from Labour, that is a really creditable showing. I have stated more than once that this election was a poisoned chalice to the victor. This is almost the ideal situation for the Conservatives. Labour got a bloody good kicking, the Lib/Dems didn't make any progress at all, despite the success of I agree with Nick in the debates. Brown is going to get the animosity of the electorate if he tries to cling to power by his fingernails, making a pact with the Lib/Dems. He is seen by all to be a busted flush, never elected as PM by the people and now rejected by them at the polls. Even if the Conservatives do a deal with the Lib/Dems or other parties, they can blame those others perhaps if they do not get the co-operation they need. But I agree with you that if Brown had any sense he would have gone to the Country earlier. Good thing that he doesn't have any sense, eh?

Agree. It was clear enough to anybody with half a brain that the polling stations closed at 10pm and they had since 7am to vote. Nobody has an excuse if they left it to the last minute and then found out that many others had too. They'll know better in a few months when they have to do it again. However, as a technicality, they were entitled to cast their votes if they arrived at the polling station before 10pm, so they should have been cordoned off and allowed to vote.

It's too early to say yet, as there appears to be another 50 seats to declare. But if you're going to be argumentative, kindly refute the opinion I expressed that Labour got a bloody good kicking. If you can, which I doubt.

All those achievements and the electorate gave them a bloody good kicking. It must make you want to emigrate - oh.

And Labour is the party of the horny-handed sons of toil, the cloth-capped workers and the bolshey Trade Unions. The Liberals/Lib Dems are the party of muddle-headed bearded sandal wearers who have the crackpot ideas not properly thought through. These are easy criticisms to level. Of course, anybody with any sense would look beyond the stereotypical and have a closer look at the policies of the parties and make their judgments on them rather than the bigotted and outdated class war perceptions they hold

You're a bigot!

There was a bit of a wobble an hour or two ago, when it seemed that they might get away with it all. But when people have the chance to get over the shock/horror and think about it rationally, they begin to take comfort that it won't happen. Further comfort comes from the Skates' forums accepting that they won't get away with it and even some of the more intelligent posters admitting that their behaviour is a matter for shame.

Nick Clegg had a privileged private education at Caldicott and Westminster. He comes from and also married into families from a wealthy background. Blair's education was similarly privileged, at a private Prep School followed by Fettes College, dubbed the Eton of the North. And yet, how often do we hear criticism of Cameron, about how much of a toff he is and yet nothing about Blair and Clegg? There are just too many hypocritical class warriors on the left of British Politics. As to whether to choose somebody who has had a superb education and whose ownership of a sizeable property reflects their success in life, or somebody else whose education was average and whose lack of success in life was exhibited by their humble abode, well, that's a hard choice, isn't it? You see how easy it is to turn on its head? Presumably, as a man of principle, you won't be voting for Clegg's party because of his expensive private education and big house. Brown is the one of the three from a humbler background. Will you be voting for him?

What you say makes a lot of sense and perhaps you highlight the future path of democracy in this Country. Perhaps proper democracy will be forced on the Politicians this way. The idiot Brown has introduced (I think it was him) a facility on the Downing Street website whereby the people can sign a petition on any matter of concern, which then acts as a barometer as to how populist the cause is. One hopes that the Government ignore the really popular causes at their peril. Surely the natural extension is to bring this Vox Populi into the wider public domain, with a website specifically aimed at the most important policy areas and to record the public vote on them. At the moment, the Parties ask the public to vote on a basket of policies, Education, Health, Defence, Law and Order, Immigration, etc. The absurd position taken by the Parties is that if elected, they have a mandate to pursue everything in their manifesto. They have no such thing. What would be really interesting would be such a site holding an online referendum on a different policy issue each month. Naturally it would have to be tied down in such a way that multiple votes could not be recorded by those interested in a particular result, but surely that is not insurmountable.

I don't see why an electorate of 54000 would be a problem, as the smallest constituency electorate is just 22000 in what was formerly the Western Isles. I have already had a couple of good grizzles at the number of MPs representing Scotland and Wales, mostly Labour, when both those countries have their own Parliament/Assembly and yet also vote on English affairs, whereas we have no say in theirs.

Notice also that both Eastleigh and Arundel are both bigger than average constituencies. It takes nearly 5000 extra electors to produce a member of Parliament in Arundel and 6000 more in Eastleigh. On the Isle of Wight, I think that the electorate is something like 108,000, making it the largest in the Country. Time that this inequality was addressed

Yes. If it wasn't for UKIP last time around, Conservatives would have won. Perhaps those people who voted UKIP do not want Brown as PM and realise that voting UKIP was a waste and that if they do it again, they will in all probability still have Brown at Number 10. Also worthy of note, is that there is a Liberal candidate, somebody disgruntled that Huhne had made a promise on something or other that he did not keep. Presumably they would also be taking votes away from Huhne.