Voteting UK View of Politics USA

President Obama has said he is looking forward to working with the new Prime Minister of the UK the morning after the election has closed.  But Britain faces something it has not done so since 1974 a hung parliament where no outright winner was elected. the magic number was 326 seats for outright majority, with the conservatives getting the highest vote with 308 seats, bit enough to seal victory.

The result is the Conservatives are trying to do a deal with the Lib Dems, to see if they can create some sort of coalition government, with agreed  shared policies. If this is agreed, Nick Clegg will achieved more than any other Lib Den leader has in nearly 100 years, even though he lost seats this election. Labour also wants to deal, but knows it needs to wait to see if the talks between the conservatives and Lib Dems falls down first before they move. This is probably Gordon Brown’s last chance of staying in number 10, and many cannot see how the conservatives and even the LIb Dems would want this to happen, even though the Lib Dems policies are closer to Labour’s than the Conservatives.

In the meantime we all sit and ait and wonder what the future of Britain will be. It will not match what anyone voted for, as every party will be make concessions.

Small businesses will be also waiting, not wanting to commit to large purchases or marketing campaigns until they know he mapped out political future.  Take a small company such as Global Door. They rely very much on the housing and DIY market, to sell their range of composite doors. Currently they do not know if interest rates will rise this year or next and can only wait and hope the political decisions help small businesses to cripples them in order to pay back the national debt.  This does not just stay at composite doors, but also the motoring sector where businesses want to know if there is enough confidence after any coalition in the business sector to buy high ticket items such as a new vehicle, or even commit to company vehicles.

Time will tell, but how long? Will this process take for ever, will every decision take forever? It didn’t work in 1974, so should it work now? Or is it a safer bet to have more than one party governing, ensuring all decisions are safe ones in this financial unstable time?

Three major uk polical parties, Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats have different approaches to managing the UK Deficit.

In 2009 the UK posted a UK Government deficit of £159.2 billion, equivalent to over 11% of UK GDP. One might be lulled into a false sense of security thinking that this is a sustainable debt considering we are in the grips of the deepest recession since 1920’s.

However any good accountant in the UK will know, and be happy to tell you, that (by December 2009) the UK Government debt reached in excess of £950 billion, equivalent to more than 68% UK GDP. The figures don’t make such good reading, which is why accountants are good people to have around in business. They can make sense of what is really happening. UK Accountants will also tell you about impending consequences, and in this case are much more likely to do so that UK Politicians (who act as if they don’t know). perhaps Uk Accountants should play a more active part in UK politics since politics is almost always about the economy and Government spending. Is this not the case in US Politics, and the election of President Obama into the White House in 2009.

In the UK’s case, the Maastricht Treaty sets limits on deficit and debt  to 60 per cent for all EU countries, including the UK. This means that the UK is in default. Assessment is on a financial year basis and data was passed to the E.U. Commission at the end of March 2010. It is still inclear what the final consequences of the UK default will be. It will surely put the UK’s all important AAA credit rating in jeopardy. It is this error that could cloud how Gordon Brown’s time in charge as UK Prime Minister may be judged, and gives ammunition and power to the COnservatives argument of severe cuts in public spending to bring the UK Deficit into line.

The conclusions being made by the media and polls is that we are heading for a hung parliament with no clear majority within the UK elections. Gordon Brown is trailing third, but compared to his popularity last year, the figure are better with conservatives a clear favourite last year, not not sure whether they will win with enough majority, if the polls are to believed. 

The new thing for 2010 has the televised debates that has got the people of the UK talking and has radically changed the Lib Dems’ chances, as Nick Clegg’s popularity rose massively after the first debate. It raises the question of whether the main voters will vote for someone they like, or for their policies in their manifesto.

The economy is the key theme this year, with Labour saying it is too early to make massive change and the conservatives wanting to do more earlier and with the current problems in Greece, his argument may be getting through more.

But the details of the parties manifestos, seem to be lost in the media scrum for likeability of the comments Mr brown made about Mrs. Duffy, that appears to have hurt him in the media eyes, but not in the polls.

The problem with the manifestos (all of them), is that they are just too general. If we take an industry such as car manufacturing that has just been through (and is possibly is still in ) the worst downturn ever, there is not clear words of what each party will do to help this industry. The success in car buying relates to the factories, car showrooms the UK leasing companies, not to mention the related car parts and accessory businesses.

This has not been singled out as the worst but just as an example, that most people do not feel they are being represented within these manifestos, as they are just too general and created to create a dream of a wonderful Britain, when in reality most people are more interested in their families future and success.

So here to Thursdays elections and lets see if the vote goes to nice people, someone who insults his voters or a party that was miles ahead a year ago and now is looking to just be the majority in a hung parliament.