Winston Churchill said, as I recall, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.” That may be so, but I think democracy has a lot of shortcomings, some of which I would like to identify here: 

The Electorate
Back in 1800 and before, the electorate here and in Great Britain consisted of an elite group of free male landowners, who could differ vociferously about  many issues, but who at least accurately understood what those issues were. As suffrage was extended to the rest of the population, and at the same time the issues became increasingly complex, the comprehension gap steadily increased. Today, as an example, the Tea Party movement demonstrates how far our citizens are from understanding what’s going on. They can be rallied to march against a supposed Democratic plan to achieve ‘Nazi Communism’ without really understanding either of those contradictory terms, or how the actions of the Obama administration in any way fit either description.

Technology
As this country extended itself across the continent, the electorate necessarily became dependent on the public media as their primary means of understanding events and issues. In Britain, it has been understood for many years that certain publications will provide the slant that you prefer – The Telegraph for Tories, The Guardian for Labourites, and so on. The BBC, on the other hand, appears to maintain a relatively unbiased view. Until recently, the American media, for the most part, also strove for objectivity. With the acquisition of Fox News by Rupert Murdoch, this position has changed. While making the preposterous claim to be ‘Fair and Balanced’, Fox presents increasingly outrageous propaganda for the moronic conservatives who consume it.

But a brand-new development last week has made me even more cynical about the democratic form of government. A right-wing radio commentator actually succeeded in forcing the resignation of an administration employee by selectively editing a recorded speech to reverse its meaning, creating the impression for listeners that the woman was biased against whites.

As the tools to edit both audio and video data improve, it seems to me that it should become possible to create entire speeches by political figures out of whole cloth. We might expect to see on Fox News, for example, a face, apparently that of Barack Obama in his popular Joker makeup, praising Nazi Communism and explaining his plans to create death camps for Republicans. How can the average citizen possibly separate fact from fiction?

The Solution
If democracy is so fragile, you will now be saying, was Churchill wrong? Is there, in fact, a better form of government?
It’s possible. I believe there is much to be said for the time-honored system of benevolent dictatorship. As you are all aware, I am the most modest of men; far be it from me to put myself forward as a candidate for any kind of election. If I should be drafted by public acclaim, however, I promise to be as benevolent a dictator as anyone could want. (Except, of course, for those benighted individuals who oppose me. For them, a few well-designed death camps might really be the thing.)

by Alex Goss

David Cameron (CON) is the man in charge as Prime Minister and to his right will be Nick Clegg (LIB) in his role as Deputy Prime Minister with the added dispensation to clean up politics and reform the system.

As Foreign Secretary, William Hague (CON) retains the position he earned in the shadow cabinet, and will also be Chairman of the Northern Board of the party, fighting to reshape the perception of the party in the north of England. The next top job falls to George Osbourne (CON), in an appointment some may consider a surprise, having become Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Theresa May (CON) become Home Secretary, and gains the remit of being the Minister for Woman and Equality as Harriet Harman was in the last parliament. Dr Liam Fox (CON) has become Defence Secretary, despite being shadow health secretary under both William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith.

Lord Ken Clarke (CON), seen as a thatcherite by many for his hard-line right views and his years of service in the Major and Thatcher government’s, leading Britain out of its previous recession, has become Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State For Justice. Andrew Lansley (CON) is now Health Secretary, whilst Michael Gove (CON) is Education Secretary. Vince Cable (LIB), once toted as a possible chancellor, and deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats has fallen to Business Secretary but will be part of several committees linked with taxation and banking. Iain Duncan Smith (CON) takes over Work and Pensions and Chris Huhne (LIB) will now be Energy and Climate Change Secretary. David Laws (LIB) seen by many as on the liberal side of the Liberal Democrats economical policies will become Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

Danny Alexander (LIB) will be Scottish Secretary. Patrick McLoughlin (CON) will remain Chief Whip. Eric Pickles (CON) becomes Communities and Local Government Secretary. Dominic Grieve (CON) becomes Attorney General. For Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, Jeremy Hunt (CON) will take up the mantle. Baroness Warsi (CON) will become Conservative Party Chairman.

Caroline Spelman (CON) is environment secretary; Philip Hammond (CON) is transport secretary; Cheryl Gillan (CON) is Welsh Secretary; Owen Paterson (CON) is Northern Ireland secretary; Lord Strathclyde (CON)  is leader of the Lords. Details of the new Policies can be found on the BBC.

LATEST : David Cameron has just left Buckingham Palace and is now Prime Minister, having formally signed the agreement with the Queen. He has arrived at 10 Downing Street, place of dreams.

ON THE SPEECH : There are “Deep pressing problems”,but Cameron has decided to form a “proper and full coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats” and “put aside party differences”, “to take difficult decision”  and form a “strong government, to “rebuild trust in our political system”, reforming parliament and ensuring that politicians are always “their servants and not their masters.” He asks us to be responsible to our country, and to have a sense of duty, and that “those who can should” and that “we will always provide for those who cannot.” He wants to build a society of “freedom, fairness, and responsibility,” by rebuilding our communities.

It has finally happened. At this very moment Gordon Brown is on his way to speak to the Queen, only minutes away from handing over power to a Conservative – Liberal Democrat coalition, which David Cameron will lead. It remains to be seen what the terms of the agreed deal are, and the Liberal Democrats federal executive committee still does not meet until 9.30pm and he requires a 75% majority, but it has become evident that the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have agreed some sort of a deal. He has spent a while with the Queen, explaining the process to the Queen, and how he will form a majority.

Gordon Brown’s departing words where “I wish the next prime minister well as he makes the important choices for the future. Only those who have held the office of prime minister can understand the full weight of its responsibilities and its great capacity for good. I have been privileged to learn much about the very best in human nature and a fair amount too about its frailties – including my own.” He made a gracious exit, with his two sons and wife with him, and has quickly been greeted with good wishes from members of the press and MPs.

The deal still has to be ratified tonight at 9.30pm, and Simon Hughes, a senior member of the Liberal Democrats, stated that “I will use my head rather than my heart, and if it’s something I believe will deliver the sort of more liberal and more democratic future that I’ve fought for for 30 years or more then I’d be prepared to support it.” But the question still remains as to the nature of the deal, despite many Conservatives being highly optimistic about it. The draft agreement included a fixed-term parliament of three years or more and an agreement by the Liberal Democrats not to vote against them while they are in power. There is also said to be no tax now on the first £10,000 one earns according to Lord Carlile. Whether this is in the final agreement remains to be seen.

Labour will begin its search for a new leader over the coming months, but it is expected to take until July.  Harriet Harman will now be Acting Leader of the Labour Party. Already the spin has begun from Labour, as Peter Mandelson excused the loss, saying Labour had had”a good, long innings”, whilst Ed Balls pointed to their losing the election as a fault of Gordon Brown supporting the country rather than focusing on politics often.

The question now to be asked is what to expect from the new leader. We’ll be reviewing key points of the manifesto shortly when the deal is announced. Comment below or follow us on twitter.

“The idea that the two parties that suffered most in this election, that were rejected by the electorate, that in the case of the Labour party lost a hundred of its seats, should put together an illegitimate government, this is the Robert Mugabe style of politics,” says Conservative MP and former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind. “It’s exactly what Mugabe did you know, he lost the election and scrabbled to hold onto power.” But that is the way Senior Liberal Democrats are attempting to pull Nick Clegg, despite him being one of the most right leaning Liberal Democrats in modern history. Unfortunately Labour members from Jim Fitzpatrick to a prominent scottish labour mp, as yet unnamed have expressed doubt in the ability of their party to form a workable coalition.

In terms of the Labour Leadership contest, Harriet Harman appears to have bowed out, saying that as Deputy Leader she cannot stand for Leader of the Labour Party, though it is unclear whether this means she intends to step down, as some have suggested. David Milliband is still the favourite, with some newspapers suggesting that Ed Miliband will also stand, either to help his brother by splitting the left, or with the real intention of becoming Leader of the Labour Party.

In other election news last night’s take back parliament protest went well, and the leaders are pushing the idea that they have been successful as “Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats heard our voices that proportional representation must be part of any coalition deal. They have now begun formal negotiations with the Labour Party, who may be inclined to offer this essential reform if the Tories refuse.” They also are cheered by the Tories offer of an Alternative Vote Referendum.

In short, Cameron is offering fixed-term parliaments and a referendum on Alternate Vote which he has just phoned Nick Clegg to discuss. Labour on the other hand offer on fuller proportional representation and a bill on the Alternate Vote scheme. It remains to be seen whether without a leader of the party how cast-iron Labour’s offer will be. Alistair Darling seems to hold little hope insisting that they are necessary but that he’s unsure if anything will come of it. At 10 o’clock the Liberal Democrats will meet to discuss the offer once more.

Michael Gove, the shadow minister for education would have us think that there is “unanimous” support among Tory MPs and peers for offering the Lib Dems a referendum on electoral reform, but all his comments are really showing is the Conservative desire to sign the deal and get into parliament. Most of Labour have given up, despite the talks, as the pact is unworkable, as it fails to secure them a majority, even despite the fact that Sinn Fein have never sat in on parliament. Labour MP Diane Abbott says that “tragically, the numbers mean that a Lib-Lab pact would be least stable”.

Harriet Harman, the deputy leader of the labour party is also set to make a speech at some point, outlining the future of the party. We’ll have news tomorrow on the speech and all the events as soon as they unfold. For now comment below, or contact us on twitter.

As Tory-Lib Dem talks move further on, Brown has finally announced that he will step down. It will perhaps signal the hope of a new wave to Lib-Lab talks which may even lead to a new coalition, though that seems unlikely considering its dependence on nationalist parties which may well cost them dear. Nick Clegg has finally agreed to set up official, formal talks between Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

Now the challenge is for Labour to decide upon a new leader who can pull the Liberal Democrats away from Labour. Constitutionally, the argument goes that an unelected Labour Prime Minister would not be unconstitutional as we have a parliamentary democracy whereby we vote for our local candidate who joins part of a block in parliament that elects a leader to speak for it, rather than the public electing a leader in the same style as a presidential democracy. Obviously the criticism is that after the TV debates and the past few years developments in politics, people vote more and more for the Leader and the party than just the party and its candidate.

But it is necessary to remember that Labour now lack a leader which it will take a while to elect democratically from within the party and the two parties together lack a majority. The ultimate sacrifice for the coalition or a vain gesture in the hope of keeping his party in power?

Fantasy Cabinet anyone? Tweet us, or comment below.

“I cannot believe that anyone who forms a government can be deaf to the calls of the people for Proportional Representation”  Lord Ashdown, former Liberal Democrat Leader. Yet Nick Clegg’s priorities seemed to be arranged in a different order. First is Tax reform, followed closely by improving education, and then sorting out the banks. Political Reform, and not even Proportional Representation, comes a pithy fourth despite the huge protest which Nick Clegg addressed yesterday. To the assembled crowd he said, ”We don’t like these negotiations going on behind closed doors. The votes that people cast on Thursday should have given us a coalition government…We need a consensus government to deal with the difficult choices we have ahead. That’s what the British people voted for.”

The Scottish National Party have called for a Lib-Lab Coalition, and promised alongside Plaid Cymru to stand with them, and the SDLP traditionally would join with Labour, giving them in total an extra 12 seats which would take them to 327 against the Conservatives 318.

There are of course many commentators calling for this to end swiftly in order to calm the markets, so there will be a great pressure on Mr Clegg to join the Conservatives today, if he ever will, which looks increasingly more likely, unless Gordon Brown resigns as he should have done at the end of the election. The right to form parliament still might have come to him, and politically he would have been in a much more credible position.

Also later today : The Liberal Democrats meet to decide once and for all! (We hope)

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I’ve been waiting to put my two cents in. Nick Clegg’s just headed into the Liberal Democrats headquarters so we’ll see what happens there. For now, you’ll have to abide with me (well, if you want.)

Naturally, I’m a labour supporter. I tend to side with Labour because I want my vote to be helping others not just myself. This is the way I see Labour’s principle of redistributing wealth, that it is necessary to spread this burden in a way that helps the poorest because everyone deserves a certain Quality of Life.

Labour have diverged a lot from that principle. I’m ashamed to say that I think Labour have failed us, on more counts than one. There have been good things in the past few years but crucially there has been a huge split between where we were meant to be going, to where we ended up. Gordon Brown has not been radical, he’s not been elected, and he hasn’t been a driving force in any way. That’s not to say Brown doesn’t have his plus points, as I’m sure he does, as rarely reported as they are.

But the Conservatives have always illustrated selfishness to me. They favour lower taxes, and less government, which means less job creation in the public sector and less money for the poor. You don’t have to agree with this. In fact I hope you don’t, so long as your reason not to is solid.

I’ve been flip flopping all day about how I think this will go. Labour and the Liberal Democrats seem less and less likely to sign a pact, but then more and more Liberal Democrats are beginning to question their party on the basis that it might join the right-wing Conservatives who are far away from its principles. Some of the Tories support proportional representation, but a huge majority hate the very idea because it won’t result in them holding power very often, and it will result in so-called ‘weak government’. So in theory a Lib Dem-Tory pact should be off the cards, but now more than ever it seems well and truly on the cards, though whether this is all just for show remains to be seen.

It’s also important to note that the Conservatives received ONLY 36% of the vote. That has never been, until now, sufficient to form a government. They can tell you how many seats they’ve won, how they’re the only party who can legally govern but their share of the vote would not be sufficient anywhere else to govern. I apologise for how biased that may appear, but I wanted to make the fact clear.

Will there be the new kind of politics that the Liberal Democrats used to want? Or will we just see a quick election and a Conservative majority?
I don’t know. And nor does anyone else. So register your comments below and we’ll see if you can beat the experts.

Reminder : Everything’s happening on the BBC

Some New links :

Tory Teenager : Self-explanatory really, a blog.
Labour List : Labour themed Discussion
Lib Dem Blogs : A whole list of Liberal Democrat posts. My personal favourite.

“The BBC projections show the shape of two possible rival power blocs:

LAB: 261
LD: 55
SDLP: 3
ALLIANCE: 1
Possible total: 320
CON: 306
DUP: 8
IND UN: 1
Possible total: 315

Non-aligned:
SNP + PC: 9
GREEN: 1″

From data like this it’s abundantly clear that Plaid Cymru and the SNP will prove the defining force in the rush to form a government, and the question remains, what is their price. The SNP look unlikely to join to the Conservatives due to the Conservatives intention to look into the Barnett Formula that provides Scotland with funding.  Stemming the tide of cuts in their respective constituencies appears to be the price of their vote a quick scan of their website suggests.  The green MP is unlikely to go to the Tories, considering their wishy-washy policy on the Environment which David Cameron preaches, but not everyone believes, which has also taken a back foot in the campaign.

Thoughts?

Hung Parliament. The poll puts the Conservatives on 307 seats, Labour on 255, the Liberal Democrats on 59 and others on 29.
Can this poll be trusted?
Lib Dems into negative numbers, and a hung parliament. Unlikely scenario I think. Down to the results now.
Still queues in the polling stations, and people will now be unable to vote!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/liveevent/