Britain’s Conservative/Liberal Democrat government faced a humiliating setback on July 10 when ministers had to cancel a key vote on their flagship plans to reform the House of Lords.

The government wants to replace the present appointed chamber with a chamber whose members are 80 percent elected/20 percent appointed. The legislation is widely seen as the Liberal Democrats’ baby, and it is bitterly resented by many backbench Conservative MPs. Over the last few weeks, more and more Conservative MPs have announced their intention to vote against the bill, and the number of rebels eventually reached 100.

The Labour opposition has committed itself to voting for the bill’s second reading, which is when the Commons endorses the general principles behind the legislation. Because the government controls the timetable in the Commons, a vote on second reading is usually followed by a ‘program motion’ that sets time limits for the remaining legislative stages. But Labour objected to the amount of time that the government proposed to allocate to the bill, and the party decided to instruct its MPs to vote against the program motion.

Without Labor’s support, it seemed highly unlikely that the program motion would pass. In the absence of a timetable, opponents of the bill would be able to filibuster it. Back in 1968, an earlier attempt at House of Lords reform foundered because of just such a filibuster.

The government whips must have gotten spooked, for when the Commons began the second day of the debate on second reading, the Leader of the House, Sir George Young, announced that the program motion had been withdrawn. “For Lords reform to progress, it needs those who support reform to vote for reform and to vote for that reform to make progress through this House. It is clear that the Opposition are not prepared to do that, so we will not move the program motion tonight.”

“We remain committed to making progress on Lords reform, and with second reading behind us we will then consider how best to take this agenda forward and how best to secure progress through the House for reforms that have the backing of this House,” he continued.

In the absence of a program motion, the bill will be in legislative limbo even if it receives a second reading. The government leadership in the Commons face a dicey situation. Finding a timetable that will please Labour could be difficult, but if they decide to go ahead and commit the bill to a Committee of the Whole House without any sort of time limits, it is almost certain that rebel Conservative MPs will do their best to filibuster it. Newspapers are already reporting that the rebels have drawn up extensive plans to table wrecking amendments and fight any subsequent attempts to curtail debate.

If the House of Lords Reform Bill ultimately fails, the coalition will be placed under incredible strain. Bad blood between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats seems to be growing by the week, and many Liberal Democrats would probably see the bill’s loss as a Conservative betrayal. There are already rumblings that, if there is no Lords reform, the Liberal Democrats will retaliate by blocking forthcoming boundary changes that could help the Conservatives at the next election. If the coalition descended to that level of infighting, it is hard to see how it could continue until the next scheduled election in May 2015.

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In another sign of strife at the heart of Britain’s Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has threatened to instruct his MPs and peers to vote against the Health and Social Care Bill unless it is substantially altered.

In its current form, the bill gives local doctors more control over the health budget and introduces greater competition into Britain’s nationalized healthcare system.  Critics, including the opposition Labour Party, argue that the bill could lead to the backdoor privatization of the National Health Service.  Doubts have also been raised regarding the ability of local doctors to make effective budgetary decisions.  Because of a torrent of opposition to the bill, the government is proceeding slowly and a date has yet to be set for the bill’s final consideration by the House of Commons.

Speaking on the BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show, Clegg asserted that the government’s decision to slow down the bill’s progress was more than just a political stunt.  “This is not a cosmetic exercise. There will be substantial, significant changes to the legislation.  As far as Government legislation is concerned, no bill is better than a bad one, and I want to get this right. Protecting the NHS, rather than undermining it, is now my number one priority,” he said.

He went on to say that he could not ask Liberal Democrat peers and MPs to vote for the proposals “unless I personally am satisfied that what these changes do is an evolutionary change in the NHS and not a disruptive revolution.”

In the aftermath of last week’s failed Alternative Vote referendum and massive Liberal Democrat losses in the local government elections, Clegg has come under pressure to differentiate himself from his Conservative coalition partners.  By adopting a tough stance on the NHS reforms, he no doubt hopes to mollify the increasingly jittery members of his own party.

Clegg’s intervention puts the Conservatives in an awkward position.  If they cede too much ground to the Liberal Democrats, it will increase dissatisfaction among rank-and-file Tories, many of whom are just as hostile to the coalition as their Liberal Democrat counterparts.  At the same time, if the Liberal Democrats all vote against the bill, it would likely fail to pass and the coalition would be dealt a blow from which it would be difficult to recover.  The coming weeks will likely see a great deal of behind-the-scenes horsetrading as the coalition tries to thrash out a compromise that will satisfy both camps.  David Cameron and Nick Clegg will have their work cut out for them as they try to steer the coalition between Scylla and Charybdis.

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Britain will continue to use the first-past-the-post electoral system to select Members of Parliament after a proposal to switch to the Alternative Vote method was resoundingly defeated in a nationwide referendum.

When the final results were in, 12,570,539 had voted ‘No’ while 5,807,086 had voted ‘Yes.’

Voting reform has long been a priority of the Liberal Democrats and when they entered into a coalition government with the Conservatives last May, they extracted a promise from Tory leader David Cameron to hold a referendum on whether or not to change the method of voting.

Supporters of AV argued that it would reduce the number of ‘safe seats’ and make MPs more accountable to the electorate.  Furthermore, it would help ensure that future governments were actually supported by a majority of citizens.  The AV campaign also attracted the support of a large number of celebrities, including comedians Stephen Fry and Eddie Izzard.

Opponents of AV claimed that it would be expensive to implement and would give more power to politicians.  They also raised the specter of an endless series of coalition governments like those seen on the Continent.

The No victory is not unexpected since most recent opinions polls suggested that the pro-AV camp was headed for defeat.  Voting reform was seen as an example of ‘dog whistle politics’ that only a small segment of the population felt passionately about.  Also, the No campaign was bolstered by David Cameron’s vigorous intervention.

Cameron’s decision to come out so strongly against AV has led to tensions within the coalition government.  Many Liberal Democrat ministers had expected him to lie low in the interests of preserving unity in government and his robust engagement has led to accusations of treachery.  Last week, British media reported that Energy Secretary Chris Huhne got into a heated argument with David Cameron and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne during a Cabinet meeting over what he saw as the unfair tactics of the No campaign.

The defeat of AV was not the only bitter pill for the Liberal Democrats to swallow.  Yesterday’s local government elections saw them lose almost half their councilors and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is likely to come under considerable pressure from grass roots elements of his party who have long been unhappy with the decision to enter into a coalition with the Tories.  Although it is unlikely that Clegg will face a serious challenge to his leadership, the BBC predicts that he will try to shore up his support within his own party by standing up to his Tory colleagues more often.  It has also been rumored that the Liberal Democrats may get a consolation prize of sorts in the form of a proposal to use proportional representation for elections to a reformed House of Lords.  But given the history of Lords reform, it is not at all certain that these proposals will ever make it off of the drawing board and Clegg may find that he is in for a rough couple of months.

UPDATE: The UK Electoral Commission has released updated voting figures for the AV referendum.  The Noes are now 13,013,123 while the Yeses are 6,152,607.

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The Scottish National Party has secured an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament, triggering a fresh round of uncertainty regarding Scotland’s place in the United Kingdom.

Because Members of the Scottish Parliament are elected by a combination of first-past-the-post and proportional representation, there has never been a majority government in Scotland since devolution in 1999.  But the SNP went on to win 69 out of 129 seats, a net gain of 23 seats from the last Parliament in which the SNP formed a minority government.

Many of the SNP’s gains were at the expense of Labour and several prominent Labour MSPs, including finance spokesman Andy Kerr and former minister Tom McCabe, lost their seats.  The BBC quoted Professor John Curtice of Strathclyde University as saying that Labour’s performance in Scotland was the worst for 80 years.  Not surprisingly, Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray has announced that he will be stepping down in the autumn.

Why then did Labour, the party that brought devolution to Scotland in 1999, fare so badly?  Many commentators lay the blame on a lackluster campaign by Iain Gray that saw Labour adopt several SNP policies as their own.  The narrowing policy divide between the two parties focused attention on the leaders’ personalities, and Gray was widely seen as less charismatic than SNP leader Alex Salmond.  Labour’s cause was also hindered by embarrassing footage of Gray taking cover in a Subway sandwich shop in order to avoid the ire of protestors.

Labour was not the only party to feel the pain on election night.  The Liberal Democrats suffered a net loss of 12 seats and are now down to just five MSPs.  Their coalition partners in the UK Government, the Conservatives, fared slightly better and won 15 seats, a net loss of five.

Salmond has promised to hold a referendum on Scottish independence during the second half of the five year Parliament.  But it may be too early to sound the death knell of the United Kingdom since recent polls indicate that only a minority of Scots support full-fledged independence.  Salmond will likely face an uphill battle as he tries to convince the Scottish people that Scotland would be better off outside the United Kingdom.  The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, and Labour are united in their opposition to independence and can be counted on to campaign forcefully against the SNP in the run up to a referendum.  Since a ‘no’ vote would be a huge embarrassment, Salmond will have to choose the timing of the referendum carefully.

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