TOP 100 NEWSPAPER SITES
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| Copenhagen climate summit: what are the sticking points? Gordon Brown has warned it may not be possible to get a deal in Copenhagen, where more than 190 countries are attempting to thrash out a new agreement on tackling climate change. telegraph.co.uk |
Jamaica: No guide lights when jet overshot runway KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) -- Offshore lights that guide pilots into Jamaica's main airport had been knocked out for more than a month when an American Airlines jet landed in driving rain and overshot the runway, injuring most of the 154 people on board, officials said Friday.... hosted.ap.org |
The price of a kingmaker | Geoffrey Wheatcroft Clegg protests too much. Like all third parties, the Lib Dems would be up for sale if power was on offerMost of us are really quite pleased if someone makes a pass at us, at any rate after a certain age and if the advances aren't too gross, but Nick Clegg is the bashful sort. With a pretence of modesty, the Liberal Democrat leader rejects the overtures of David Cameron and the Tories on one side and Gordon Brown and Labour on the other. Unhand me, sirs!Any Lib Dem voter may rest assured that "there are no backroom deals or under-the-counter 'understandings' with either of the other two parties", Clegg writes. And he tells Radio 4's Today programme that "an election is about people giving politicians their marching orders", not about "politicians saying before people have had their say 'Oh, we are going to do X, Y and Z, regardless of how you vote'".This dissembling is all very well, assuming we believe it, and there has indeed been a certain grossness about the way Dave and Gordon have each made a play for Nick; but when Clegg piously insists "we are not up for sale", he is plainly wrong. He knows his MPs and party members would prefer to support Labour rather than the Tories.But he also knows the Lib Dems would surrender themselves body and soul to either party if it offered the holy grail of proportional representation. And he ought to be aware that third parties are, and must, be up for sale, all the more so in countries that have PR.In the Republic of Ireland, Labour and then other groupuscules have habitually made themselves available for coalition with the two larger parties. In Germany, where the system likewise ensures that no party will ever have an absolute majority in the Reichstag, the Free Democrats would traditionally ally themselves with Christian Democrats to the right or Social Democrats to the left.At one time, the foreign ministership was well nigh a hereditary perquisite of the Free Democrats, and the election last autumn saw a reversion to form: that party is again in coalition, with Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, and its leader Guido Westerwelle is foreign minister. Is Clegg really pretending he would reject an equivalent offer?Funnily enough and all inadvertently, he puts his finger on the better arguments against PR. While saying he isn't on offer, he claims "the idea of any party being in cahoots to the others is nonsense until the people have had their say". But third parties often do find that they are available to the highest bidder, not to say that they do end in cahoots with others, but only after the people have spoken at the ballot box.With all its faults, the present electoral system leaves the choice of government to voters on election day, even if, in Herbert Morrison's phrase, when the electorate say something they say it in italics. He meant that first-past-the-post distorts the result not merely to the disadvantage of third parties but very much in favour of the winner. There has never been a more dramatic example of that than the last election, when Labour won 55% of seats with barely 37% of the popular vote.And yet at least it was a party that had won a plurality that enjoyed such exaggerated power, and it was the electorate who had made the choice. Under PR, governments are made not by the voters on election day but by party bosses after it, and any exaggerated power is enjoyed by smaller rather than larger parties. The extreme case is the way religious parties have imposed sabbatarian laws on a secular majority of Israelis because they hold the parliamentary balance.However much Clegg says he isn't a kingmaker, that's just what he will be if no party has an absolute majority. Is it cynical to suppose that the question then will be not whom he gets into bed with but what his price will be?Nick CleggLiberal DemocratsGeneral election 2010Proportional representationConservativesDavid CameronGordon BrownLabourGeoffrey Wheatcroftguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Egypt Brotherhood elects new head Egypt's outlawed opposition Muslim Brotherhood names a conservative figure, Mohammed Badi, as its new leader. news.bbc.co.uk |
Afghan President Warns 'Military Solution Alone' Not Viable Afghan leader says reconciliation is needed, especially with Taliban members not affiliated with al-Qaida or terrorist networks www1.voanews.com |