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Comment by s_kilk | Hacker News Reader

May's reasoning is basically that there is an opposition now, and that there should not be.

The thought of indefinite unopposed Tory rule is sickening.

I think her reasoning is more around the fact that there isn't any effective opposition now, so might as well lock in another 5 years.

I suspect it is more about the next election, she doesn't want it just after brexit completes.

The majority of the English like strong, essentially unopposed governance. They like be to be able to choose the g'vner occasionally, but they don't want multiple powerful factions.

Do we?

Not all of us, but the majority of us do.

I think that the majority of the country is generally less comfortable with the idea of coalitions/minority governments/power sharing than many other parliamentary democracies where those things happen more regularly.

Consider the run-up to the 2015 GE when it looked like Labour/Lib Dems/SNP might be able to form a majority coalition even though the Conservatives were likely to be the largest party - there was a lot of sneering at the idea of a "coalition of the losers". That circumstance arises quite frequently and is largely accepted in many other countries, as can be seen from the results of Denmark's recent elections.

English maybe, but the rest of the UK has different electoral systems and different popular parties.

And I'm not even sure it's the English public asking for this. Are people really going to say they'd rather a strong government they disagree with than a marginal one that's forced to negotiate for support? No, I think it's English conservatives who have trouble with the concept of loyal opposition and the English press in particular who hate anything that would make politics less of a binary choice.

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