1. Three-horse Race

Before the leaders’ debates, most assumed it was a foregone conclusion. Brown would falter, Cameron would triumph and Clegg would provide comic relief. This was not the case. Clegg, addressing the camera directly, appeared to hold common ground with many voters, and days later polls showed the Lib Dems to be second or even first, leaving Labour and the Conservatives trailing. Though he was to fare worse with the other debates, following Cameron essentially adopting his combative debating style, Clegg’s performance proved the Lib Dems could still pose a threat, one viewed seriously enough to warrant plans for a  possible coalition.

2. The Posters

David Cameron’s first election posters provoked ridicule and parody throughout parliament and the internet. At last, thought Labour supporters, Cameron is coming across for what he is; airbrushed, vague and phony. Tony Blair mocked the ‘Vote for Change’ slogan. Posters were defaced. Labour was gaining the upper hand. At least, until they released their own posters, portraying ‘Dave’ as the fictional 1980s detective Gene Hunt, known for his non-PC attitude. Evidently, no-one at Labour HQ realised Hunt’s popularity. Cameron retaliated immediately, expressing his admiration for the comparison, while the Tories rattled off their own version. Labour’s campaign was not working.

3. Bigotgate

The worst was yet to come. Gillian Duffy, a widowed pensioner, confronted the PM over immigration, expressing her concern about uncontrolled Eastern European immigration. While he maintained a calm composure publicly, calling her a ‘good woman’, Brown revealed his true colours when he was heard calling her a ‘bigoted woman’, thanks to a Sky News lapel microphone. The ensuing furore ensured this was the moment the re-election campaign finally collapsed. Brown’s efforts to apologise were futile. Offering to invite Duffy to 10 Downing Street, she responded, saying how she didn’t think he would be there much longer. The scandal revealed to many Labour’s supposed dislike for its own regular voters, along with furthering the immigration debate.

4. The Wives

What better way to see the election than through the leaders’ wives? At least, if you were a newspaper editor. There was never a dull news day with exciting stories about which wife was winning the fashion battle, or the mothering melée. There was Sarah Brown, the Twitter Tsarina, well known for her charity work. Her opposition, Samantha Cameron, or SamCam, was already popular among voters, due to her down-to-earth approach and political ingenuity, engaging with the electorate through her own video logs. After announcing her pregnancy, it seemed there was nothing to stop her becoming the next ‘first lady’. Enter Miriam Clegg. Decidedly withrawn compared to the other two, Mrs Clegg was content with the occasional appearance. Her Spanish nationality struck a chord with the new, Europhile voters attracted to the Lib Dems after the leaders’ debates. Evidently, voting for someone due to their wife is a flimsy reason to vote, but nonetheless these three women were there to show their spouses’ human features, with varying success.

5. The Other Parties

The anti-Europe party UKIP gained the initiative when their outspoken leader, Nigel Farage, quit to challenge the speaker John Bercow’s Buckingham constituency. Though Bercow was gifted with a sizeable majority, the main parties had agreed not to stand agaisnt him, because his position was essentially non-political. Thanks to their absence, and barring any more plane crashes, Farage is likely to beat Bercow, since many conservative voters believe Bercow is closer to Labour than the Tories. Farage’s victory would give UKIP their first-ever MP. Meanwhile, the Green Party leader Caroline Lucas is the favourite to win the Brighton Pavilion seat. Perhaps these small movements show how democracy is not dead, with only a few parties able to gain power, and how, despite the fact it is only one single vote, your vote counts.

We’ll have more later when the results come. Let us know what you think. Leave a comment below.

First the media were going wild over ‘Cleggmania’ – the surprising win of the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg in the first ever televised Prime Ministerial Debate. However, now the Lib Dem’s have slipped out of their lead in the polls the thing everyone is now focusing on is the prospect of what everyone is calling a ‘hung parliament’. Judging by the amount of people who have asked me exactly what a hung parliament is over the last few days, I don’t think the public quite understand what one of these would entail…

First, to understand a hung parliament you need to understand First Past The Post, the voting system Britain currently operates under. England, Scotland and Wales are split up into areas called constituencies. There are 650 of these, and each of the main parties (and all the smaller ones as well) put up a candidate in each to run for election. This is how we elect MP’s, and for a candidate to become the MP he or she needs to get one more vote than the candidate that comes in second place. For each MP a party obtains they gain a seat in parliament. This is where all the problems start. For a party to have a majority, aka. being able to form the government and make their leader Prime Minister without any problems they need to have at least 326 (just over 50%) of the seats in parliament. If no party obtains at least 326 of the seats we have what is called a hung parliament. This is a problem because for a government to be able to pass laws they promised to pass in their manifesto they have to win a vote on that issue in parliament. If they do not have more MP’s than all the other parties put together it makes it harder for them to push through legislation. If Labour lose 24 seats or the Conservatives fail to gain 116 more, Britain will be left with a hung parliament.

So what happens in the event of a hung parliament? This is actually where Nick Clegg and the Lib Dem’s rising popularity come in. In the event of a hung parliament, in order for a party to be able to operate without a majority but still be able to form a government some form of coalition or pact needs to be made between the Liberal Democrats and either New Labour or the Tories. Nick Clegg has made it clear he will support the party with the largest mandate (who the public has indicated they want the most) to govern, but he is still not clear if this will be the party with the most votes or the largest number of seats, as this is not always the same party. However, Clegg has made it clear that his price for forming a coalition with his party is a look at, with a view to change the current voting system to a form of Proportional Representation, which is a voting system that would make the number of seats a party holds in parliament more reflective of the amount of votes cast for that party across the country.

Under the current First Past The Post system, as there is not the same number of people living in each constituency, so the party with the largest number of seats is not always the party with the most public votes, something which many people including members of the Liberal Democrats call unfair. Smaller parties would be able to gain more power (including extremist parties, the BNP have representatives in European parliament because those elections use a form of Proportional Representation) and it would be difficult for a party to gain at least 50% of the seats in parliament, forcing more coalition governments or pacts between parties. The Conservatives won’t outright say no to Proportional Representation, but they have made it clear they favour the current system, and as the Lib Dems are insisting on it this could cause a problem if the two parties wish to form a coalition after the election. The Nick Clegg is making the same demands of the Labour party, if they were to receive the largest mandate but a change of Labour leadership from current Prime Minister Gordon Brown would also be most likely be included in the deal. This would probably not cause much of a problem as many in the Labour party already wish to replace Brown as their leader.

In an article in The Times last week Conservative leader David Cameron outlined the consequences of a hung parliament, including the very possible crisis of the pound. Coalition governments are seen as weak as they rarely last, so there is a risk that the international market will lose faith in Britain and its government, and therefore its currency and Britain could face a ‘double dip’ recession, falling back into the economic hardships it is finally recovering from. Another financial issue with a weak coalition is because they rarely last, there is a suggestion of another election before Christmas and elections cost a country a lot of money to hold. A hung parliament can also be seen as undesirable because with the Conservative and Liberal Democrat promises to ‘clean up politics’ in the aftermath of the MP’s expenses scandal, more decisions would be made behind closed doors in the event of a coalition between the parties, warring between their own conflicting ideologies, and this would not be the open and transparent politics that the parties are promising.

Of course, with such a bridging of the gap between Labour and the Liberal Democrats, and a new leader, who is to say that the two parties will not join forces on a grander scale than even the proposed 1997 Lib-Lab Pact? In fact, while for the conservatives proportional representation, and thus only between 27% – 40% of the poll, would be a disaster, for a unified Lib-Lab 38(on lowest polling over the past two years) – 62% (on current polling) victory would be almost guaranteed. A hung parliament is not the only option in this Election, but with Blair gone, is a Lib-Lab pact still possible?

So what can you do if you don’t want a hung parliament? Due to the First Past The Post system the only two parties who have a realistic chance of gaining a majority are Labour and the Conservatives. You must vote for what you believe in. However, if you do want to vote tactically and at whatever cost to avoid a hung parliament, according to the opinion polls over the last few weeks the party with the strongest lead is the Conservative party, but as I have just shown, that lead does not translate into seats, and therefore Labour still have the best chance of forming a government which is not a balanced parliament. But they may seek to introduce a system of proportional voting, and so to avoid that, the Conservatives remain your only option.

By Rachel Phipps

At a time when when unity in a party is paramount, this news will be encouraging for the Conservatives who are following their tag line in this elcetion campaign as “we cannot go on like this”.

 The argument for change is simple. Labour MPs do not think that they are more likely to succeed in the election with Brown at the helm. Whereas before the leadership challenge would be fraught with danger, these two outgoing figures are leaving politics, and although never in the Labour premiership of minister, are still formidable characters with nothing to lose. They argue for a secret ballot that would be quick and  ”not disrupt the work of current MPs”. The story will no doubt flair as repercussions must take place.

Patricia Hewitt, leading the rebellion.

Echoblog would like to support fully the petition to “make Political Education compulsory at Primary and Secondary school in support of the UK Youth parliament “Think Inside the BoX” campaign“

Please follow the link (http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/InsideTheBoX/#detail)  to agree with:

We the undersigned support the UK Youth Parliament “Think Inside the BoX” campaign for compulsory political education to be taught in both primary and secondary education, ages 5 to 14, with a then optional GCSE/standard grade available to all students. We believe that the absence of this education has caused an apathy towards politics which could threaten this country’s democracy, and that a better education would lead to a higher voter turnout.

As a student that has voluntarily followed this course, it has instilled a real and live interest and appreciation of politics in me. This would not necessarily have been achieved if the course had not been available. I believe that if the same treatment is given to others then our British democratic system would enjoy a surge in high quality participation. To think of the weight that has been born by many to bring democracy for all to Britain, letting the democratic system pass us by is an insult to our history and forefathers. If not protected, our future could be a very uncertain place – do your bit to steady the foundations.