This may all be common knowledge by now but I’ve just found out that Michael Howard is MP for a marginal constituency where he has a majority of only 5900 votes over the Liberal Democrats. Furthermore, the Labour vote was 9000. So, if the Lib Dems can persuade two-thirds of the Labour voters to vote for them instead, Howard will lose his seat.
What would then happen if the Tories win the election but Howard loses his seat? Who would be Prime Minister? Does the Prime Minister have to be an MP? It’s probably all decided by precedence. If there is no precedence then one will have to be invented. The British constitution is really flexible like that largely because we don’t really have one.
Labour voters of Folkestone and Hythe! Cast off your chains! Vote Lib Dem! You’ve got nothing to lose but Michael Howard, his smirky grin and his inane appeals to, what he likes to think of as, common sense.
Posted 14 April 2005, 23:27 BST
