Electoral system

An OurKingdom conversation [History: Jeremy Gilbert > Rosemary Bechler > this post > Rosemary Bechler (part one; part two) > Jeremy Gilbert]

Mark Bell & Alasdair Murray (London, CentreForum): Opinion polls suggest a hung parliament is more likely than at any point in the last 25 years. Long term electoral trends also point in this direction - the share of the vote received by the Labour and Conservative parties has fallen in every general election since 1992. Over this period the Liberal Democrats have increased their number of seats, reaching a post-War high of 62 at the last election, as important local factors are increasingly deciding constituency outcomes.But Westminster is singularly unprepared for a long-term hung parliament, and there is little agreement on what its political or institutional implications would be. In our view Westminster should not fear non-majority government. While it may introduce added complexity, and the need for certain new institutional mechanisms, experience from both at home and abroad show that such governments can be both stable and productive, and may pave the way for a more consensual style of politics Furthermore devolution has meant that coalition and minority government is no longer a purely foreign import in the UK. The experiences of both Scotland and Wales shed light on how non-majority government could work at Westminster.