The UK elections have been interesting to observe. It might actually prove to be valuable lessons for other countries. As noted in The Independent, The United States might learn a thing or two.

As predicted the electorate delivered a hung parliament. Perhaps the people wanted to hang the parliament instead? Surprisingly, the Liberal Democrats did not do as well as predicted. Actually no one did. No one actually won, yet.

The Conservatives fell some 20 odd seats to form out right majority and now need to butter up the Lib Dems. Traditionally, (I would not say constitutionally, as the Brits do not have a written one), the sitting Prime Minister has the right to form government. But 326 seats are needed to form government, as of now Labour has 258 predicted seats and the Lid Dems have 57. That is still 11 short. Labour might need get into bed with a few more people. I doubt a Labour-Tory coalition.  The Conservatives and Lib Dems can form government with a total of 363 seats. Most predict a Tory-Lib Dem coalition. An uneasy marriage,  perhaps a marriage of convenience. I will give it six months, then its off to the polls again. Or the divorce court.

Is there any difference between the three major parties? Can the agree on anything? According to Michael Blastland from the BBC Magazine, they do, on one thing. He says,

“…the whole shebang depends: the health of the economy, the bond markets, and all our favourite abstract nouns – fairness, change, prosperity, etc. But squeeze a maxed-out credit card between these lines, relative to past variability, if you can. The differences – for the next seven years, no less – turn out to be rather smaller than New Labour managed all on its own. The party varied levels of tax or spend – not always up – far more than the parties now say makes all the difference.”

He says that the below graph from the Institute for Fiscal Studies is the best one from the election coverage. So it seems that the parties need only to “agree about all the other policies.” But I still think another election is looming.

Images: from the BBC.