Government formation part 2

An alternative to the current process used in the United Kingdom and others with the Westminster system. This is using the UK as an example.

• General election Thursday May 7, 2015
• Parliament reconvenes on the second Monday after an election. This is 11 days after the election and for this election that is Monday May 18.
• Monday morning swear in the new members of parliament.
• Monday afternoon elect the Speaker.
• Tuesday the Speaker ask the House of Commons to nominate individuals to be called upon to form a government. A nominee must have at least 5% of the membership of the House or 33 members endorsing them.
• If there is more then four nominees then the four with the most endorsements are called upon to form a council-designate which is a government in waiting. If there are four or less all are called to form a council-designate.
• Obviously before the UK Parliament meets there will be intensive negotiations behind the scenes to form a majority coalition if no party has the majority.
• This is done Tuesday morning and later the Speaker of the Commons calls upon Her Majesty to invite the listed individuals to form council-designates.
• Tuesday afternoon they are called in at 1, 2, 3, and 4 o’clock and are invited by the sovereign to form a governments-in-waiting to be called upon by Her Majesty to form the government should they have the confidence of the House of Commons.
• Each nominee then forms a council-designate of say 16-24 members that would form the government should it have the confidence of the House.
• Wednesday morning the Commons then votes on the question, “which of these councils-designate has the confidence of this House to form Her Majesty’s government in this Parliament ?
• If no council gets a majority then a second vote is held with only the top two from the first vote on it. The council with the majority becomes the Council of Ministers and the runner up council becomes the Council of Opposition.
• In 2005 the first vote would be something like Labour 411, Conservative 174, and Liberal Democrat 55. Labour forms the government, conservatives the opposition, and the Liberal Democrats an alternate council. After the last election the first and only vote would be something like Coalition (Tory/Lib-Dem) 415 and Labour 217. A coalition government and Labour as the opposition.
• Parliament would have a fixed term and set election day. You can only have early elections by a motion of dissolution passing the Commons by 480 votes (75%).
• There are no non-confidence motions. The government serves for the duration of that Parliament unless the Commons passes a motion of dismissal against the government and replaces it with another.
• Any minister can be removed by a motion of dismissal passed by a 2/3 majority vote with quorum, including the PM.
• The Council of Ministers can be replaced by a motion of government dismissal passed by an absolute 2/3 majority. This motion must have a nominee for Prime Minister who is called upon to form a new government if the motion of dismissal against the government gets the 434 votes. No member of the defeated government can be included in this new government.

Greater stability since the House of Commons establishes confidence in a government right at the start of a new Parliament and the government serves for the duration of that Parliament which has a fixed term and set election day. Only by super majorities can this be changed. An absolute 2/3 majority to replace the current government with a new one that then serves till the next election or an absolute 3/4 majority vote that actually does dissolve Parliament and triggers new elections. Note the scheduled general election still occurs so instead of having 1 full Parliament that lasts 4 years you have two short Parliaments that last a combined duration of 4 years. The second short Parliament can not be dissolved for early elections.

Acting president: Barry Aulis