dear rightpondian friends

[rone]

With the exciting certainty of a hung parliament, and barring the Liberal Democrats and Labour getting 18 of the remaining undecided 21 MPs (according to Wikipedia) to possibly establish a majority alliance, what are the voting patterns of the Parliamentary minnows (so to speak), and how would they be wooed by the Tories and Labour?

Comments

[adb-jaeger.livejournal.com]

I don't think Labour can get a majority, even if they picked up 100% of the stragglers.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

That's why i said a "majority alliance". Right now Lib+Lab is at 308.

[skapusniak.livejournal.com]

With 4 results of 650 still outstanding

Add SDLP to Labour (257 + 1 = 258)
Add Alliance to LibDems (57 +1 =58)
Add Green to not Tories (316 + 1 = 317)
Add Plaid Cymru to not Tories (317 + 3 = 320)
Add SNP to not Tories (unless Tories bid really high, and/or Alec Salmond is feeling even more Machivellian than usual) (320 + 6 = 326)
Sell the DUP to the highest bidder. (+8 to someone, to be renegotiated next week)
Sinn Fein don't take their seats in the Parliament of the occupying power. (brings winning line down from 326 to 324)
Notice that the Speaker won relection, and he's a Tory, which means the Tories effectively lose one vote for a lot purposes (304 -1 = 303)

So yeah, a non-Tory coalition is just barely possible, *barely*, for wheeling MPs out of hospitals on life-support, falling over in the slightest breeze, squabbling like rats in a sack levels of possible.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Unionists tend to like the Conservatives (and propped up the Conservatives when they lost their majority in the 1990s), most of the rest would AFAIK be inclined to oppose them.