British general election (10): is an election that does not produce an overall winner really so unusual?
“Hung parliaments may seem unusual but they are not. Britain had 20 governments in the 20th century, according to Prof Robert Hazell of University College London’s constitution unit. Of these, five were coalitions and five were minority governments. Only 50% of these governments were the “traditional” single-party majority government that Britain’s first-past-the-post electoral system is often deemed to favour.
Most European Union states have hung parliaments. And even some other countries with Westminster-style systems are well used to hung parliaments too. Canada, for instance, has had three minority governments since 2000, while New Zealand has had seven hung parliaments in the past 20 years.”
This is the conclusion of a piece by Martin Kettle in today’s “Guardian” newspaper which you can read here. It may be that the British experience of 2010-2015 is the new norm.