The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats were trying to hammer out a power-sharing deal yesterday as politicians faced rising pressure to compromise and create a new government to calm fears about Britain’s economic stability.
The two parties are likely to find some common ground on the economy and taxes, but are seen to be furthest apart on the issue of voting reform.
The Liberal Democrats want Britain to shed a system that gave them just 9 percent of the seats in parliament after they won 23 percent of the popular vote. That is a crucial concession Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg needs to sell any coalition deal to his party, but Conservatives will be loathe to give in on this issue because it would damage their chances to hold power in the future, since it would leave them at the mercy of smaller parties and left-leaning coalitions.
The divide could offer an opening for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour Party to stay in power through a coalition with the Liberal Democrats and some smaller parties.
Conservative leader David Cameron and Clegg held their second face-to-face meeting on Sunday, with both sides describing the talks as being “amicable.”
“We’re very conscious of the need to provide the country with a new stable and legitimate government as soon as possible,” Conservative foreign affairs spokesman William Hague told reporters before negotiations with senior Liberal Democrats.
After six hours of negotiations, Hague emerged to announce that the two parties agreed that they should focus on economic stability and reducing the ballooning budget deficit.
The prospect of days of political horse-trading has fueled anxiety in financial markets already unsettled by the Greek debt crisis.
Cameron’s Conservatives won 306 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons in Thursday’s national election, but fell 20 seats short of a majority. For the first time since 1974, voting resulted in a “hung parliament” in which no party is able to take overall control.
Cameron is now hoping to woo the center-left Liberal Democrats, who finished in third place with 57 seats. Labour finished with 258 seats.
Britain’s voting system is based on races in individual districts, as it is in US congressional elections. Clegg wants a system more like those in continental Europe in which parties win seats in proportion to their share of the total vote — a system that is much less likely to put one party in a dominant position. The Conservatives fear such reforms would leave the Liberal Democrats holding the balance of power indefinitely.
Former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown told the BBC that although the dialogue between the parties was congenial and respectful, “that isn’t enough ... because there is a mountain to climb here.”
“I don’t believe that anybody can now establish a new government who is deaf to the calls from the British people for reform to our political system,” Ashdown said.
Brown, still hoping that his party can cling to power, has offered to legislate for a referendum on changing the voting system — a step further than Cameron’s offer to the Liberal Democrats to create a “committee of inquiry” into the issue.
Cameron and Clegg would also have to compromise on their positions toward Europe. Clegg’s party is in favor of Britain eventually joining the euro, a policy Cameron’s bloc bitterly opposes.
The Observer newspaper reported on Sunday that it obtained a secret Conservative Party document drafted by Hague that outlined a strategy for Britain to take back some powers from the EU and emphasized “we will never join the euro.” A Conservative spokeswoman said no one in the party had knowledge of it.
Conservatives and Liberal Democrats agree on the need for spending cuts, although Cameron wants a more severe pace for austerity measures. The two also have similar policies on cutting taxes for the lowest-paid British workers. Both have pledged action on civil liberties and would likely take quick action to scrap Britain’s planned national identity card program.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles. It might sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than 1 percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years. Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes. Scientists are not panicking yet, but they are watching closely. “At this point, it’s: ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump
RSS