Hung Parliament

Fair Deal (Belfast, Slugger O’Toole): In a Radio Ulster interview, DUP Deputy Leader in waiting Nigel Dodds, has left the door open to a deal on 42 days detention.

With nine MPs, the DUP is the fourth strongest group at Westminster. In March, The Guardian speculated that a Labour/DUP deal was in the offing over the Bill’s second reading. This proved unnecessary and the purported basis of the deal made no sense. However, the new unknown is how the Parliamentary Labour Party will react to the elections? Will they become more or less rebellious and will 42 days become a rallying issue?

Guy Aitchison reviews No Overall Control? The impact of a Hung Parliament on British Politics edited by Alex Brazier and Susanna Kalitowski, Hansard Society (with contributions from David Butler, Vernon Bogdanor, Philip Cowley, Helen Margetts, Mark Gill, Rosanne Palmer, Stephen Thornton, Mark Cowley, James Mitchell, David Docherty, Austin Mitchell, Simon Jenkins, Simon Hughes and Philip Norton).

(Hansard Society, March 2008, 116pp)