MOTHER SEEMS CONFUSED – AT 7:48 A.M. ET:  The mother country voted yesterday, and the result, as polls suggested, is a hung Parliament. 

Conservatives well ahead, but without a majority; labor second; the liberal Dems, who hoped for a miracle; well behind, and deservedly so.

What happens now.  Well, according to some Parliament experts, the party in power, by tradition, not law, should get the first shot at assembling a coalition government.  But the conservatives are mounting a battle, saying "We're number one."  The Times of London:

David Cameron announced today that he intended to press ahead and form a government even though the Tories failed to secure a majority in yesterday's general election.

The Conservatives said that Mr Cameron would make a statement at 2.30pm spelling out how he will try to form an administration which is "strong and stable with broad support, that acts in the national interest".

The announcement follows the declaration by Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, that he believed the Mr Cameron had gained "first right" to attempt to form a government because his party had won both the most votes and the most seats.

Mr Cameron's decision to go public even before the full election results are in challenges the constitutional convention under which Gordon Brown, as Prime Minister, has the right to try to form a government.

Sounds like a mess, and it is.  And it shows the problems with proportional representation.  Our two-party affair is more stable.

Some are suggesting that the only thing this can lead to is another election, sooner rather than later:

Any government formed in the next few days will not be able to command a stable or overall majority in the Commons. So the new Parliament is unlikely to last more than a year or so. A second general election is probable either later this year or in the spring of 2011.

Everything else is uncertain.

The only way out, a Conservative/Lib Dem coalition, looks highly unlikely because of Tory opposition to electoral reform.

As politician after politician said overnight, the public has spoken, but it is not clear what they have said.

COMMENT:  Given the muddle that Barack Obama has made of British-American relations, our influence here seems decidedly limited.  The "special relationship" needs work, on both sides of the pond. 

It's a wait-and-see situation.  So we'll wait and see.  Things should be clearer in a few days.  The Queen waits for an answer.

May 7, 2010