Coalition government negotiated

May 9, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

LONDON

Within days, Britain may have something it hasn’t seen since World War II — a coalition government.

The first-place Conservatives and third-place Liberal Democrats are negotiating in hopes of resolving an election that failed to produce a clear winner. It remains to be seen whether the right-wing and center-left party can share power or even cooperate on keeping a minority Conservative administration in control of Parliament. They are likely to find common ground on the economy and taxes but have divergent views on voting-system reform, nuclear weapons and some key foreign policy issues.

With negotiations between the parties likely to stretch on for at least two more days and the ruling Labour party still lobbying for its own alternative coalition with the Liberal Democrats, the only thing that’s clear “is how confused it is at the moment,” according to Bill Jones, a professor of politics at Liverpool Hope University in northern England.

Uncertainty has a cost: Market jitters over Britain’s record deficit mean that there’s increased pressure on both parties to compromise on their principles for the sake of economic stability.

“We have a political crisis in the country, in terms of a growing awareness that the voting system is totally inadequate,” Jones said. “The other crisis is the economic crisis, which is how to deal with the deficit. Those two things are competing with each other.”