Elections, negotiations, resignations and coalitions - Why a hung parliament may have been a blessing in disguise.

It seemed as though it would never end, then at approximately 7.25pm yesterday it all got interesting.

Gordon Brown, who had resigned as Labour party leader just the day before, announced that he would be resigning as Prime Minister with immediate effect. At 7.25 he held a brief meeting with the Queen where he resigned and left the way clear for David Cameron to form the next British Government. This has been seen as a cynically timed resignation as Brown knew that although the Liberal Democrats would not form a coalition with his party, they had yet to hammer out a deal with Camerons' Conservative party.

Cameron however was undeterred, and at 8.30pm last night the Liberal Democrats voted in favour of a coalition with the Conservatives which would leave them in a strong position to influence the future governance of the United Kingdom.

Cameron has been magnanamous in his appointments of a new cabinet with no fewer than 5 Lib Dem MP's being given positions in the new cabinet. These aren't minor positions either, My personal favorite Liberal MP, Vince Cable is now Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. This isn't quite Chancellor of the Exchequer as i had hoped, but it is still a very prominant role, having been previously held by master of the dark arts himself Peter Mandelson.

The developments of the last 48 hours or so have had a rather strange effect on me though. They have left me rather enthusiastic about the future of British Politics. With a coalition of Lib Dem and Conservative parties in power certain compromises have had to be made by both. The Conservatives have had to accept that political reform is something that has to be looked at and have now got the benefit of access to the Lib Dems brightest stars when appointing cabinets.

I don't care who you voted for, if you kept an eye on British politics, and economics in the last 2 or 3 years Vince Cable should have been your preferred option for Chancellor. I voted for the Conservatives and i wanted them to give him the job even if they got a majority!

This could well be a glimpse of the future too. If a system such as proportional representation is installed as the new election format for the UK then we will be getting many more hung parliaments in the years to come, this in turn will force reasoned discussion and compromise between the parties, and hopefully result in better decisions and a more open mindset from the politicians that rule this country.

Proportional Representation also has one more benefit. How many people think at election time "well my vote doesn't matter, how can one vote make a difference?" Well under PR every vote is worth the same, unlike the current past the post system where in my constituancy David Kendall came 2nd with over 11,000 votes, votes that counted for nothing. Under the new system those 11,000 votes would be added to all the other votes cast for a party. If a party gets 50% of the votes, they get 50% of the seats in parliament. Simple isn't it.

Anyway, this election may have dragged on, people may well have gotten sick of listening to the news reports around it, and many might well ignore politics all together until the next vote comes around. But for me this election has been the start of something new, something (dare i say it) exciting. I voted for change, now it's time to see if it's change for the better...

Robinho