Election 2010
Parliamentary Outreach team speak to ESOL students about Parliamentary processes
The Parliamentary Outreach team came to the Cardinal Hume Centre today to explain about the workings of Parliament to 35 ESOL students.
Alasdair McKenzie, the Parliamentary Outreach officer, went into much detail as to what would happen if there is a hung Parliament following the general election on Thursday. This would mean no one party having a majority with the likelihood of some type of coalition government resulting involving two of the parties.
Alasdair thought that if there were a hung Parliament then another election would be likely within the year. The last time such a situation came about was under Labour leader Harold Wilson in 1974. He won without a majority in February, then attained a small working majority at a later poll in October of the same year.
There will be a rise in number of MPs this time around from the present 646 to 650. Any party looking to have a working majority would have to win at least 326 seats.
On the question of eligibility to vote, the team declared that as long as an individual is a British, Irish or Commonwealth citizen they are allowed to vote. This includes, in the Commonwealth case, people granted indefinite leave to remain. EU citizens are not permitted to vote in general elections but can in council elections which also take place in London on Thursday.
Some of the ESOL class thought the Conservative Party had been in power, while others were concerned that they may be in power after Thursday. Alasdair illustrated the importance of voting with the example of a Conservative MP who before the 1997 election went to a restaurant and was rude to the staff. The staff all pledged not to vote for that MP and he lost by eight votes.
The ESOL students found the Outreach team’s presentation interesting; one thought “there was a lot of useful information for me, I enjoyed the session”, while another said, “I learnt a lot about the parliamentary system, it was really useful for me.”