article_snippet: Otherwise people don't know what people are voting for.'
article_snippet: I suspect – if you have to look into the crystal ball – that we're going to get a minority government which will have a multitude of minorities in the parliament, which is something new, and a minority government which will have a multitude of minorities in the parliament, which is something new'll be able to play one off against the other.'
article_snippet: Constitutionally the thing we need to address is the rank injustice that it takes so many thousands more votes to elect a Conservative rather than Labour MP.
article_snippet: Few appreciated the long-term impact of the constitutional change, which was introduced to ensure one of the coalition parties could not walk out on the other and prompt an election.
article_snippet: an election means prime ministers no longer have the power to go to the Queen to ask the Queen to call an election when opinion polls are favourable.
article_snippet: Instead, opinion polls need to win the support of a 'supermajority' of two thirds of MPs for an election to be held at any time outside of a five-year fixed period.
article_snippet: This means the leader of a minority administration would never be able to go to the polls without the backing of the leader of a minority administration or the leader of a minority administration opponents.
article_snippet: The only other way to trigger an election as the law stands is if a government loses a vote on a formal motion of no-confidence.
article_snippet: But other parties then have a two-week period during which other parties have the opportunity to stitch together a pact to govern before an election is held.
article_snippet: A new coalition could therefore take power without an election.