Civil Servants and Politicians gear-up for a Hung Parliament...

On 24th February 2010 this select committee heard fascinating evidence from a series of civil servants and academics on the likely twists and turns leading to  government formation in the event of a hung parliament. Some questions remained unanswered (or even unasked) but one remarkable exchange at the beginning of the tape suggested that the Meeting of Parliament and the Queen's Speech could be postponed by proclamation - implying that a "defeated" PM could remain in office for a considerable period of time without facing any parliamentary test...

Altogether a remarkable insight into how seriously the Establishment is taking the prospect of a hung parliament, and how their priorities are:

i) the continuance of effective government in a time of uncertainty

ii) the protection of the Queen from controversy

iii) an attempt to codify the rules of the game of party political poker that would ensue.

Note that the wishes of the voters do not feature on this list. They would be deemed to have produced an indecisive result, and their further opinions would be considered redundant. The Establishment would facilitate the installation of any viable government.

What can we learn from Last Time?

On the last day of February 1974 the country went to the polls. It was a bizarre election...

A three-day week, power cuts, a miners' strike and the worsening situation in Northern Ireland had led Ted Heath to call an early election on the issue of "Who governs Britain?", against a backdrop of Liberal and SNP electoral resurgence.

In response to Heath's fatuous question, amid rain and snow in many parts of the country, the electorate delivered an impenetrable answer.

	Seats	chg	Votes	chg
Con	296	-37	37.9%	-8.5
Lab	301	+20	37.2%	-5.9
Lib	14	+8	19.3%	+11.8
SNP	7	+6	2.0%	+0.9
UU	7	-1	0.7%
Oth (NI)	5	+1	1.3%
PC	2	+2	0.5%	-0.1
Oth (GB)	2	+1	1.1%
Speaker	1	-

(seat changes based on notional 1970 result)

The Tories emerged from the election with the most votes, Labour with the most seats, although had the seven Ulster Unionists remained fully-fledged affiliates of the Conservative party (as they were in 1970), Heath could have legitimately claimed a seat plurality as well. The Liberals, with over 6 million votes, had insufficient seats to combine with either main party to form a majority (318 seats required).