The Times Guide to the House of Commons
The most definitive and authoritative guide to 2010’s much-anticipated General Election.Compiled and written by The Times’s unrivalled team of leading political journalists, The Times Guide to the House of Commons offers an in-depth look at UK politics, charting the run-up to the general election of 2010, as well as a thorough analysis of the extraordinary outcome and the implications it holds for Britain’s future.This large-format authority on UK politics will prove an indispensable and enjoyable point of reference for anyone interested in the state of government in Britain.Published just 9 weeks after the official election date, this is the first account of its kind to hit the shelves.Contents include:• Commentary and essays from leading Times political writers, including Matthew Parris, Ben MacIntyre, David Aaronovitch, Daniel Finkelstein and Ann Treneman, covering a great range of fascinating subjects and angles.• Expert analysis of how Britain voted and why. Includes like-for-like comparison with the results of 2005.• Inside accounts on why David Cameron embraced a full coalition with the Liberal Democrats and of Gordon Brown's decision to call off an early election.• A personal account from Mattthew Parris on why his own parliamentary career failed, and advice on what an MP must do to be effective.• A wealth of election statistics: which MPs have the most vulnerable majorities; new MPs; MPs by age, length of service, etc.• Results by constituency: informed and pithy summaries of every MP; series of full-colour maps detailing election results across the nation.• The coalition agreement in full.
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The Times: Guide to the House of Commons 2010
Editor
Greg Hurst
Assistant Editor
Emily Gosden
Design Production Editor
Chris Davalle
Chief Sub-Editor
Matthew Lyons
Table of Contents
THE TIMES An aid to the navigation of uncharted political waters
An ordinary beginning to an extraordinary campaign
How the polls really got it right
A tremor that changed the political landscape
Who cares what the papers say?
It will never be the same again
Meet the Class of 2010, the new politics in person
Bad news for big spenders: money can’t buy you votes
Little joy for the smaller parties
Don’t emerge as sounding brass or tinkling cymbal
The man who detoxified the Conservative brand
At long last it’s OK to be a Tory
Path to power: how the Lib Dems made history
How Brown’s rivalry with Blair proved to be Labour’s undoing
Names of the dead were read to a silent Commons
Hail and a fond farewell to the dearly departed
New Labour found its reforming stride too late
‘This sucker’s going down’: diary of a financial crisis
Northern Ireland comes back from the brink
All change, the gravy train has hit the buffers
The work of the House of Commons
The growing powers of the humble backbencher
New intake foots bill for the old
A few words of friendly advice for aspiring MPs
Life as a Member of Parliament
MPs who stood down before the election
Her Majesty’s Government The Cabinet
Departmental Ministers and Whips
General Election 2010: results by constituency
MPs with majorities of less than 10 per cent
Tories rediscovered the art of by-election victory
Greg Hurst
Editor of the Guide
The general election of 2010 was a watershed: the first since February 1974 at which no single party won an overall majority. The inconclusive outcome was accompanied by a strong sense of paradox. The Conservative Party won the most seats, 305, with one additional seat expected, and duly delivered, in the election in Thirsk & Malton that was delayed by the death of a candidate. And yet, by falling short of an absolute Commons majority, David Cameron was widely held to have failed to seize fully, particularly in the final year, the opportunity presented to him as the outgoing Government, and Gordon Brown in particular, became steadily more unpopular.
The Liberal Democrats, clear winners of the campaign itself, were stunned actually to suffer a net loss of five seats, bringing their tally down to 57. They had expected significant gains after the television debates propelled Nick Clegg into the living rooms of voters unhappy with Mr Brown but with nagging doubts about Mr Cameron. The ten-point jump in support for the Liberal Democrats after the first leaders’ debate was unprecedented in polling history. Even as the party’s poll ratings began to glide downwards many Liberal Democrats hoped for, and expected, net gains of perhaps 20 or 30 seats.
The paradox was greatest within the Labour Party. Clear loser of the election, with a net loss of 90 seats, it endured its worst performance since 1931 during the Great Depression. Within Labour ranks, however, a grim sense of satisfaction was evident, even some pride, both at having clawed back from the prospect of being pushed into third place by the Liberal Democrats and at having denied Mr Cameron the majority that he wanted and, they may have calculated, he needed.
One refreshing aspect was that turnout, having reached a postwar low in 2001, rose again to 65.1 per cent, up by 3.7 per cent on 2005; if an election is interesting or the result uncertain, voters are more inclined to take part.
If the result appeared confusing to some, its immediate aftermath must have seemed doubly so. Gordon Brown, vanquished, returned to Downing Street. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, after weeks, months even, of fighting one another tooth and nail, dispatched teams to begin talks on a tentative arrangement for a minority administration or even a coalition. The outcome, Britain’s first coalition since Churchill’s cross-party administration during the Second World War, from 1940-45, and the first in peacetime since Ramsay MacDonald’s National Government of 1929-35, and those that followed, ushered in a new era of British politics.
Coalition politics presents significant new challenges for the House of Commons. Ministers who are members of competing parties must find ways of working together that go beyond pragmatism and practical effectiveness and are based on trust, while maintaining their separate political entities and those of their parties. Backbench Members of both governing parties must find the language, tone and levers to criticise and influence individual aspects of policy or decisions of administration without tearing at the fabric of the coalition itself. There will be others unhappy about the very fact of coalition government, whose challenge is to advance their cause without being cast as wreckers. Such questions apply well beyond the exchanges on the floor of the Commons, to its select committees, public bill committees and its very culture as an institution.
