What would a "Cleggmania" government look like?

I found an old PMs list
2010-2024: David Cameron (Conservative-Liberal Democrats Coalition) (1)
Def 2010: Gordon Brown (Labour) Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrats) Caroline Lucas (Greens) Nigel Farage (UKIP )
2011: Alternative Vote Referendum: 51% Yes 49% No
2014: Scottish Independence Referendum: 51% Leave 49% Remain
2014-2015: George Osborne (Conservative-Liberal Democrats Coalition) (2)
2015-2016 George Osborne Conservative Minority

Def 2015: Andy Burnham (Labour) Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrats) Nigel Farage (UKIP) Natalie Bennet (Greens)
EU Membership Referendum: 53% Remain 47% Leave
2016-2024 George Osborne (Conservative-Liberal Democrats Coalition)
Def 2020: Tristram Hunt (Labour) Evan Harris (Liberal Democrats) Amelia Womack/David Lammy (Green-Left) John Rees-Evans (UKIP)
2024-Present: Priti Patel (Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition)


  1. Failed to secure a majority and formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, who secured 144 seats following a popular performance by Nick Clegg in the Leaders debate. There was a big call for electoral reform after the election with the Liberal Democrats getting barely 0.5% less votes than the tories but half the seats and still 50 seats less than Labour, despite getting 10% more of the vote. This resulted in the referendum over a Switch to the Alternative Vote system
  2. Cameron and Miliband both resgned following Scotland’s independence


And this left me wondering. Lets say there was only one debate in 2010. It was the week before the election and Britain went into a high

Electoral Calculus *"Boo! boo! Rhubarb! Custard!"* puts the Lib Dems on around 130 seats on the one poll they were in the lead. Lets say the Lib Dems get the best possibly result and hit 130 seats. with the Tories on around 260 and Labour on around 230-240.

What would the subsequent government look like? What would happen regards any voting reform.? Is this literally something done before? If so, which TL was it?

(Said electoral calculus list has people like Chuka Umunna, Tristram Hunt, Andrew Lansley and Emily Thornbury losing their seats)
 

Derek Pullem

Kicked
Donor
Electoral reform doesn't happen because 60-80% of the voters vote for parties who sometimes gain an absolute majority and they would rather a chance of that than a certainty of permanent coalitions.
 
I think we would most likely get a Labour-Lib Dem coalition. Clegg is often seen as leaning toward the Tories, but in truth I think he was indifferent to which party he would be working with, but knew that a deal with the Tories was the only viable option given that a Labour-Lib Dem government wouldn't have a majority. If that were to change, I think he would opt for Labour instead (provided Brown still promised to step down fairly soon) for the simple reason that they could offer them a lot more concessions, especially on electoral reform. Maybe you'd get AV without a referendum, or a NZ style two stage referendum with PR as an option if voters rejected FPTP in the first vote. I think the LDs would still probably take a hit for being the junior partner in the coalition, and that would increase the chances of a no vote, but I would argue that it is possible that the public votes for some form of electoral reform.

Alan Johnson has said that he had planned to put himself forward as a leadership candidate had the deal with the Lib Dems gone through IOTL. He's a strong supporter of PR, and would likely have been a very popular PM, at least to start off with. A 2011 referendum might well have fallen in his honeymoon period, and his strong backing might be enough to convince the public to back either AV or PR, depending on what specifically is on the ballot paper.
Electoral reform doesn't happen because 60-80% of the voters vote for parties who sometimes gain an absolute majority and they would rather a chance of that than a certainty of permanent coalitions.
Most people aren't as tribal as that. They might tend to vote for one party, but will still be fairly cynical about most politicians. I think most voters would basically agree that a party's share of seats should reflect their overall share of the vote, but don't care enough about electoral reform to actually vote for an alternative when it is put on the table, especially if it is seen as a concession to a junior coalition partner that they already dislike-which is why AV failed so badly IOTL. I think some sort of reform could still be possible if the public were first asked to either endorse or reject FPTP before voting on the alternatives.
 
Electoral reform doesn't happen because 60-80% of the voters vote for parties who sometimes gain an absolute majority and they would rather a chance of that than a certainty of permanent coalitions.
Most people aren't as tribal as that. They might tend to vote for one party, but will still be fairly cynical about most politicians. I think most voters would basically agree that a party's share of seats should reflect their overall share of the vote, but don't care enough about electoral reform to actually vote for an alternative when it is put on the table, especially if it is seen as a concession to a junior coalition partner that they already dislike-which is why AV failed so badly IOTL. I think some sort of reform could still be possible if the public were first asked to either endorse or reject FPTP before voting on the alternatives.

Particularly if the Lib Dems poll equal to or more than the other parties but still get significantly less seats.There might be a big call for vote reform
 
Would vote reform go for just STV or perhaps some kind of compromise between the Lib Dems and either Labour or the Tories? MMP maybe, to keep constituency MPs?
 
Thank you for the kind words and the likes, my friend.

Yes, it's a classic, a Turtledove winner for sure had I been bothered to put it up.

In my TL, electoral reform is passed by a referendum - the LDs get STV and it's hard to argue with the basic premise - in the ATL, the LDs got 34% of the vote and 125 seats while Labour got 26% and 240. FPTP cannot be defended so STV wins - the new Commons will have 576 seats elected from regional lists by Single Transferrable Vote.

I indicated by 2013 the tranditional parties had started to split - the Conservatives had split into UKIP and the Taxpayers' Alliance, led by one Matthew Elliott. On the Left, Labour had split between the Socialists and Real Labour.

I thought about a 2015 GE and did a vignette on the night which teased the result but I've never done what might have happened at that election - one day I will.
 
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