Helping my colleague and friend Cllr. SIMON KILLANE to launch his campaign to be our next local MP, I have been reading about the up coming General Election and have to say I have had my eyes opened to the world of party politics and what could happen at the next General Election in May!
(Clockwise from top left, Northern Irish Assembly, London Parliament, National Assembly for Wales, Scottish Parliament).
What could the next Parliament look like?
It appears that a ‘hung’ parliament is predicted after the General Election, due to peoples deep dissatisfaction with the big current political parties.
It is also predicted that the three main parties will lose seats and the smaller ones, such as the devolution parties, will make large gains.
No one party is likely to have a majority and the consequence is they will have to form a coalition with others.
Despite the recent bigging up of UKIP, the most likely outcome will be one of the two big parties in coalition with the SNP MPs (Scotland) and /or Plaid Cymru MPs (Wales) and/or Northern Alliance (Northern Irish) MPs.
The smaller parties mentioned have a common aim, which is to promote devolution for their own countries, a desire to have more seats and be more influential in Parliament. Nothing wrong with that, but how is it going to work practically in a coalition?
Far fetched? Don't think so, even the parties themselves and the press are talking about it! Quote from SNP Leader, Nicola Sturgeon: “Of course, perhaps this time Scotland's votes will count. A hung parliament is a real possibility. Scotland could well hold the balance of power in a Westminster parliament with no overall majority”.
Last year, as long ago as 29th October 2014, the George Eaton also saw the writing on the wall and wrote this article in The New Statesmen: columnis t In this instance he was discussing what the Northern Irish parties would do:
“ The next parliament looks increasingly likely to be even more divided than the last. After several polls putting Labour and the Tories neck-and-neck, MPs speak of the possibility of neither being able to form a majority (326 seats) - even with Liberal Democrat support.
In these circumstances, the small parties from the rest of the UK would take on a new significance. The Tories are already talking informally to the Democratic Unionist Party (the largest non-English party with eight MPs) about the possibility of a post-election pact.
The SNP, which is likely to return with an enlarged parliamentary party, and Plaid Cymru will increasingly be pressed on how they would act in in another hung parliament. More than at any point since the 1970s, all parties could hope to pocket concessions from the government in return for their support on key votes".
BBC News reported: Plaid Cymru MPs could help decide who takes power after next year's general election, party leader Leanne Wood has told its conference in Llangollen.
Leader Leanne Wood said with Scottish nationalists and Greens they could "re-balance wealth and power" in the UK... Giving her keynote speech to the conference on Friday, Ms Wood said votes for Welsh and Scottish nationalists, as well as Greens, could decide who holds the balance of power at Westminster following the election in May 2015. The independence campaign in Scotland had helped bring about the "demise" of two-party dominance by the Conservatives and Labour, she said.
So, how could this affect Government’s decision making?
The current and simple coalition between the Conservatives and Lib Dems has often been divisive, each party trading off their own parties policies and aims in exchange for power. Remember Lib Dem, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and his party’s support for the Conservative policy to raise university fees, which have in fact made so many of our young people unhappily in debt for thousands of pounds? A bad ‘compromise’ selling out on a Lib Dem principle, which showed that party political power meant more than the wishes of the people it represents!
So, with a wider coalition of one of the big parties and the SNP and other smaller nationalist parties - just how are decisions going to made? Whose party manifesto and policies will bite the dust in exchange for influence?
Will our party political MP, currently James Gray Conservative, actually be able to represent YOU in parliament, as well as SIMON KILLANE could as your People’s MP? After all, Simon would not have to agree to toe a party political line or to vote for a coalition stance he disagrees with?
So this is one big reason why I am personally supporting Simon to be our next Peoples MP.
The Peoples MP
click here (or copy and paste this link http://www.makingwiltshirebetter.co.uk/what-is-the-peoples-mp.html ).
It appears that a ‘hung’ parliament is predicted after the General Election, due to peoples deep dissatisfaction with the big current political parties.
It is also predicted that the three main parties will lose seats and the smaller ones, such as the devolution parties, will make large gains.
No one party is likely to have a majority and the consequence is they will have to form a coalition with others.
Despite the recent bigging up of UKIP, the most likely outcome will be one of the two big parties in coalition with the SNP MPs (Scotland) and /or Plaid Cymru MPs (Wales) and/or Northern Alliance (Northern Irish) MPs.
The smaller parties mentioned have a common aim, which is to promote devolution for their own countries, a desire to have more seats and be more influential in Parliament. Nothing wrong with that, but how is it going to work practically in a coalition?
Far fetched? Don't think so, even the parties themselves and the press are talking about it! Quote from SNP Leader, Nicola Sturgeon: “Of course, perhaps this time Scotland's votes will count. A hung parliament is a real possibility. Scotland could well hold the balance of power in a Westminster parliament with no overall majority”.
Last year, as long ago as 29th October 2014, the George Eaton also saw the writing on the wall and wrote this article in The New Statesmen: columnis t In this instance he was discussing what the Northern Irish parties would do:
“ The next parliament looks increasingly likely to be even more divided than the last. After several polls putting Labour and the Tories neck-and-neck, MPs speak of the possibility of neither being able to form a majority (326 seats) - even with Liberal Democrat support.
In these circumstances, the small parties from the rest of the UK would take on a new significance. The Tories are already talking informally to the Democratic Unionist Party (the largest non-English party with eight MPs) about the possibility of a post-election pact.
The SNP, which is likely to return with an enlarged parliamentary party, and Plaid Cymru will increasingly be pressed on how they would act in in another hung parliament. More than at any point since the 1970s, all parties could hope to pocket concessions from the government in return for their support on key votes".
BBC News reported: Plaid Cymru MPs could help decide who takes power after next year's general election, party leader Leanne Wood has told its conference in Llangollen.
Leader Leanne Wood said with Scottish nationalists and Greens they could "re-balance wealth and power" in the UK... Giving her keynote speech to the conference on Friday, Ms Wood said votes for Welsh and Scottish nationalists, as well as Greens, could decide who holds the balance of power at Westminster following the election in May 2015. The independence campaign in Scotland had helped bring about the "demise" of two-party dominance by the Conservatives and Labour, she said.
So, how could this affect Government’s decision making?
The current and simple coalition between the Conservatives and Lib Dems has often been divisive, each party trading off their own parties policies and aims in exchange for power. Remember Lib Dem, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and his party’s support for the Conservative policy to raise university fees, which have in fact made so many of our young people unhappily in debt for thousands of pounds? A bad ‘compromise’ selling out on a Lib Dem principle, which showed that party political power meant more than the wishes of the people it represents!
So, with a wider coalition of one of the big parties and the SNP and other smaller nationalist parties - just how are decisions going to made? Whose party manifesto and policies will bite the dust in exchange for influence?
Will our party political MP, currently James Gray Conservative, actually be able to represent YOU in parliament, as well as SIMON KILLANE could as your People’s MP? After all, Simon would not have to agree to toe a party political line or to vote for a coalition stance he disagrees with?
So this is one big reason why I am personally supporting Simon to be our next Peoples MP.
The Peoples MP
- A People’s MP who represents the wishes of their constituents will not need to toe a party line and will have much more ability to influence and to push for those issues which really matter to people! (Our current MP’s voting record proves he votes with his party line).
- A People’s MP will not have to follow party political ‘compromises’, which will only increase in number after the May elections, and will not have to vote for something which goes against their beliefs, moral code or wishes of constituents.
- 23 candidates are now standing as independent representatives, because of dissatisfaction with the main parties.
click here (or copy and paste this link http://www.makingwiltshirebetter.co.uk/what-is-the-peoples-mp.html ).