Ive been thinking about the concept of a Labour/Conservative Coalition, and so I went from wondering how it could happen to how it could become a permanent fixture in the UK, a la N. Ireland.
This your challenge is this: create a scenario whereby there exists a perpetual government of national unity. That is, a coalition government of at least the two main parties.
Rules are as follows:
- The coalition has to remain in place for at least 20 years, with ordinary elections taking place
- The POD can be before 1900 but the coalition period must be during the 1900s
- While a national emergency may initially precipitate such a coalition, it must endure afterwards in peace time. In other words no permanent states of war to justify such
- The two parties must be distinct. I.e no one party dominance framed as national coalition due to the inclusion of a minor all, e.g. no monolithic Conservative Party in coalition with a rump Liberal Unionist party.
Bonus points for extending it past the twenty years, making the parties as divergent as possible an maintaining distinct philosophies, and making it such a part of the formation of government for such a period that it becomes part of the British Constitution that you are expected to form a government of all willing major parties.