Karen Woods

Elections are always entertaining for political junkies like me but we are living through especially interesting times at the moment.

UK voters gave no party an overall majority on May 6. The predicted Tory landslide failed to materialise and the current situation is:

• Conservatives 306
• Labour 258
• Liberal Democrats 57

The ‘others’ including Scottish and Welsh nationalists, sundry parties in Northern Ireland, and a newly-elected Green total 28.  To form a government in its own right, a party needs an overall majority – 326 seats.

And the horse trading has begun. Liberal leader Nick Clegg has been locked in meetings all day as his party decides which of the major parties to support, either in a formal coalition or an agreement not to oppose individual issues. His party has a complex system of approvals before its leader commits to linking with another. The pundits say we need to know who will be forming the next government before Monday or the money markets will go ballistic.

Suddenly, politics is the thing to talk about. Brits unaccustomed to talk to others about the way they vote are now discussing issues with friends and colleagues, office computers are showing BBC online coverage and commentary on the twists and turns of events. It’s fascinating. Voting reform is now almost certain to top the agenda of whichever government takes power. Maybe, in the future, the almost-seven million Liberal voters will elect more than 57 MPs.