Problems Associated With Hung Parliaments. Part Two

For three years or so I have, via several channels, been advocating Party Free Politics, as my ideal scenario would yield a Parliament full of independent MPs I came up with the following suggested method of establishing an acceptable government. As I mulled it over the thought surfaced that, not only could the method be also used in the case of a hung Parliament it HAS MUCH TO RECOMMEND ITS USE WHENEVER A NEW GOVERNMENT HAS TO BE FORMED.

As was to be expected the word PARTY figures in the discussions and literature as to how a particular person can be deemed to be worthy of the title Prime Minister. That infers, with justification, that party politics are dominant and that the leader of the party that holds the most seats is in pole position, however in a hung Parliament that does not guarantee the race will be won. To guarantee that the leader of a party will become the Prime Minister a party must hold more than fifty percent of the seats, in which case, of course, Parliament is not "hung".

"PARTIES" have become so woven into the very fabric of politics in the UK, and many other democracies, that the word PARTY is used on the assumption, justified at the moment, that they will exist. As a start to rectifying the use of the word Party in legislation, or in "case law" situations, I suggest that the initials MPs could, also with justification, be used in place of the word PARTY.

So, without further ado, let us assume that following an election MPs are gathered in the House of Commons, duly sworn in and under the control of The Speaker. Their first duty, under my proposed new legislation, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER PARLIAMENT IS "HUNG" OR NOT, is to elect a Prime Minister, then other Ministers that are deemed necessary as well as the associated Deputies. This, as far as I am aware, is a drastic departure from the established procedure where the person designated as Prime Minister chooses the Chancellor and Ministers from his own party, the pros and cons for my suggested way of establishing a GOVERNMENT will be advanced below.

All MPs should be familiar with the gist of the following sentence that I quote from the material mentioned above [In Part One]. "A crucial aspect of the British system of government is that the government of the day must enjoy the confidence of the House of Commons". The procedure outlined in my next blog WILL ENSURE THAT ASPECT IS MET and will be totally transparent. (Though in some cases it may well be the result of previous non- transparent negotiations.)

My next blog will be Part Three of Problems Associated With Hung Parliaments,
thank you

Frederick W Gilling Thursday 22 April 2010