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Professor Tim Bale,The Napoleonic truth about coalitions: getting most seats doesn’t mean you win
Published:
6 April 2015
The idea that the largest party in a hung parliament should dictate what form a coalition may take probably comforts the Conservatives but it’s a nonsense, writes
Professor Tim Bale
for The Guardian’s Comment is Free section. “Numbers count. Of course they do. But when it comes to forming governments, physics always trumps maths. Who gets to govern depends on what force they exert within the system, singly and collectively,” he says.
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