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Thursday, 14 September, 2006

  • Newsnight
  • 14 Sep 06, 06:29 PM

icebergs_203.jpgA new report on global warming; former US president Jimmy Carter on Guantanamo; and is Clare Short about to lose the Labour whip?

Discuss Thursday’s programme here.

Would a hung parliament be good for Britain?

Faith and Freedom

  • Newsnight
  • 14 Sep 06, 05:44 PM

cartercover.jpgFormer American President Jimmy Carter, who appears on Newsnight on Thursday, argues how Christian values can inform and animate progressive politics in his book Faith and Freedom.

You can read an extract from his book by clicking here – then add your comments and reviews below.

Would a hung parliament be good for Britain?

  • Newsnight
  • 14 Sep 06, 12:02 PM

short_203.jpgFormer Cabinet minister Clare Short has said she will step down as a Labour candidate at the next General Election.

Writing in Thursday’s Independent, she revealed that she had reached a stage where she was “profoundly ashamed of the Government” and that she believed the Labour Party had lost its way.

She concluded that “the key to the change we need is a hung parliament which will bring in electoral reform”, a recommendation that has put her in the firing line of the Chief Whip.

So, would a hung parliament be a good thing for democracy? Would it add a “plurality of voices and power centres in the Commons” and thus change British politics profoundly as Clare Short suggests? Is it even possible to campaign for a hung parliament?

Tell us what you think...

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