howard mcsweeney1 wrote:I am a great believer in a third party to put pressure on the Government or even better being in coalition.
The UK's first-past-the-post voting system pretty much precludes this. Post-war, aside from UKIP (which had no parliamentary impact other than a couple of stolen Tories) and the doughty Caroline Lucas from the Greens, the only other 'new' party to gain any seats was the SDP, which was a Labour spin-off, had to team up with the Liberals anyway and between them in two elections managed a maximum of 23. The Liberal Democrats gradually increased their representation under Ashdown and Kennedy but peaked at 62 in 2005. They were already on their way down when Clegg took them into coalition, and look what happened to them after that.