Thought

[andrewducker]

Electoral Reform is coming, at some point. Labour had it in their manifesto, as did the Lib Dems.

As soon as it does, The Conservatives are fucked, because they just don't get that big a share of the vote.

It's therefore in their best interests to show that they can be part of a coalition government. Because electoral reform will lead inexorably to an end to monolithic governments. If they want to be part of the ruling government of the UK in the future then they need to show that they can be good partners and work well with others, or they're essentially consigned to history.

I wonder if that's why they were willing to compromise so far with the Lib Dems.

Comments

[star-tourmaline.livejournal.com]

God, I hope you're right about this.

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

Also, electoral reform means that they won't ever get utterly obliterated.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

I hope so - I hope that that's what the Lib Dems are thinking also. How they could overturn the one thing they've been fighting for since their inception without some sort of long game I cannot fathom.

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

Some sort of electoral reform is coming, but it's not going to be full PR.

And the Conservatives in the past have had a far larger share of the vote. It's just that this time around they were not that popular. Doesn't mean they can't easily return to the sort of vote percentage they received during the 80's. Even John Major managed to get a larger share of the vote in 1992.

Share of popular vote - Conservative Party

1970 - 46.4%
1974 - 37.9%
1974 - 35.8%
1979 - 43.9%
1983 - 42.4%
1987 - 42.2%
1992 - 41.9%
1997 - 30.7%
2001 - 31.7%
2005 - 32.3%
2010 - 36.1%

[communicator.livejournal.com]

The Tories bring in some bullshit electoral reform which gerrymanders the constituencies in England to give themselves a permanent majority, and sets a fixed term parliament so they can't be got rid of until 2015. They will campaign hard against the PR referendum, and once that's lost they will ditch the Lib Dems. Why wouldn't they do that?

[e-halmac.livejournal.com]

Quite.