I don’t have a link for it yet, but after today’s British elections the Tories have apparently gained enough seats in Parliament to form a government. This means that David Cameron, a sworn enemy of the EDL, will become the new prime minister. I realize that the Conservatives are microscopically better than Labour, but still — I’m not celebrating over this one.In other news, the crisis continues in Greece, and lending has now ground to a halt in the EU banking system, due to a lack of liquidity. This caused an alarming drop in the US stock market, with the Dow down 1000 points (9%) before it rallied somewhat at the end of the day.
Also, it now looks like the Times Square bombing suspect, Faisal Shahzad, had extensive ties to the Pakistani Taliban as well as to the ubiquitous fugitive American-Yemeni terrorist imam, Anwar al-Awlaki. Meanwhile, an unruly passenger on a flight from Newark to BWI caused the plane to make an emergency landing. The incident was probably not jihad, because this particular plane is a puddle-jumper, and jihadis don’t go after puddle-jumpers — they prefer the high-profile kills with huge fuel tanks.
Finally, a Japanese company is marketing a dress for young women and girls that converts into a disguise that makes the wearer look like a Coca-Cola machine. Using this stratagem, they can hide in a row of similar machines and thus evade a violent attacker.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Gaia, heroyalwhyness, Insubria, JD, Paul Green, REP, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
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12 comments:
the Tories have apparently gained enough seats in Parliament to form a government.
Well. They DO..... in theory.
However, Labour COULD hang on in there with the help of the Liberal democrats, and Captain Queeg Brown appears determined to hang on to power.
Whatever, I expect another general election sooner rather than later.
Coalition Governments have NEVER lasted in Britain.
And for feed back.....
The tories don't have an overall majority, so we have a hung parliament. The Queen can't appoint a new Prime Minister until the old one resigns and so Brown, in his infinite wisdom, will probably try and form a government with the liberal democrats.
Has anyone heard any good news about the BNP yet?
@ Godffrey
No good news about the BNP, they got about 500,000 votes in total, that's more than double the total 5 years ago, but far fewer than was hoped for, and no elected MPs either, Nick Griffin was easily beaten in east London.
With the main 3 main parties held in general contempt by the public, especially in the wake of a huge expenses scandal which engulfed all the mainstream politicians, it was quietly hoped that the BNP would do far, far better.
BNP-ers are scratching their heads right now wondering just what Geert Wilders is doing right in Holland, and if lessons can be learned.
Wherever I saw a BNP member, there was also a UKIP member standing.
THAT was/is the BNPs problem.
In fact if I remember the early hours of this morning correctly, in two seats there were BNP, UKIP AND the National Front standing.
The only way for these three to get anywhere, is to stop standing against each other.
If they can force you get an abortion they can force you to ____.
Also, odd that even coming in second, the sitting PM can still attempt to form Parliament. In Canada, also following Westminster style, the right to form Parliament would automatically fall to the party winning the greatest number of seats. The runner-up could attempt to form Parliament but would in all likelihood be rejected by the Governor General.
It comes down to whoever can create a majority. Brown might be able to, but it's looking unlikely the lib dems will accede to his request to form a coalition. With that failure he's likely to resign and the tories, as the largest party, will form the government. It's up to them whether they form a coalition with the lib dems. I expect the will try but, whatever happens, the government won't last very long.
Graham Dawson (Archonix) said...
Brown might be able to, but it's looking unlikely the lib dems will accede to his request to form a coalition. With that failure he's likely to resign.
You ARE joking?
Captain Queeg Brown is like the knight in Monty Pythons "Holy Grail" that is left with no arms or legs, but still want to fight.
"It's only a flesh wound" Come back and fight you cowards!"
That's the constitutional arrangement we have. The existing PM can attempt to form a majority, and if he does it he gets to remain as PM. If he doesn't, he has to resign. Again, he'll be presiding over a minority government in what is still essentially a hung parliament, he'll just have the appearance of majority through the mechanism of a coalition. Coalitions rarely last very long in British politics and are incredibly rare as a result. There was only one coalition government in the last 100 years (not counting the national unity government in the war) and that lasted about 18 months.
The only way a sitting prime minister can be ousted against his will is by a vote of no confidence in the house, or if his own party forces a leadership election, or if he can't command a majority in the house. Nothing else can do it. The Queen certainly can't. It would create an image of political partiality, which the monarchy simply can't afford.
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