Each of these books is different and not part of a sequence, but all of them have the common ability to draw you into the story and keep you turning the pages from start to finish. Click on any of the images for my page on Amazon UK and here for Amazon.com
The 2015 General Election is shaping up to become one of the most interesting on record. The reason for this is that instead of being the usual three party contest in which two parties, Labour and Tory, dominate and one or other hopes to from a government without the need for coalition, there is now in operation a very different political model. The third party, the Lib Dems, are now joined by UKIP in England and The Scottish Nationalists in Scotland. Each of these parties can have a direct impact on the outcome for the whole UK.
UKIP have tapped into a combination of anti-EU, anti-immigration, anti-establishment, anti-Westminster, pro England, pro ordinary people fed up and worried about their future, which together adds up to a resonance which is as powerful in working class urban areas as in the Tory shires. There is now no doubt that UKIP will take votes from the Tories and Lib Dems and if not from Labour’s hard core certainly from its floating vote. At the moment it looks as if this will damage the Tories a good deal more than Labour, but the latter will not be damage free. The Lib Dems were on track to lose the majority of their seats anyway and UKIP will not affect that very much. In some fights their presence will help Clegg’s people and in others cost them, so it will be a case of swings and roundabouts.
The latest and unexpected development is the post referendum rise in the popularity of the Scottish National Party. Most would have expected that its fortunes would have been on the wane, following defeat on the independence issue; its primary raison d’etre. Instead, energised under its feisty new leader- elect Nicola Sturgeon, it has tripled its membership and looks set to win many more than its current 6 seats at Westminster. Some estimate it could easily triple this total. If it does, these new seats will be gained from Labour. Any reduction in the 40 plus Labour currently holds in Scotland will seriously impede the prospect of a Labour win overall.
There is not much doubt that in the end the new Prime Minister will be either Cameron or Milliband. What cannot be foreseen is who among their political rivals they will have to do a deal with in order to gain a majority. Moreover the outcome could be such that the answer to the question of who the new PM is, will be no clearer after the election than it was before. There could be a prolonged period of uncertainty and deal making, made more difficult by the fact that the detached impartiality of the Queen, means that she will send for whoever it is, once she is advised that he has a potential majority in the commons, but she will not act as Chairman of the discussions among the warring factions. In Germany, France and Italy that role is played by the President. In Spain and the Scandinavian monarchies, all of which function under a written constitution, the monarch helps the discussions to reach an outcome.
If the United Kingdom should find itself in such a situation after May 2015, it will no doubt think of something. That is how it works.