Talk:2010 United Kingdom government formation

New article with plenty of scope
Having found articles for the events surrounding the formation of governments in Belgium I thought there was some scope for this one as existing articles skip over these events. In British terms it is unusual to have such negotiations to form a government since we have very few hung parliaments. There is certainly enough material available through online sources to produce something quite comprehensive that could make it to the dizzy heights of GA and beyond. I'll keep working on this as I get the chance and hopefully over the next few days/weeks formulate this into a useful addition to British politics related articles. Anyone who wishes to contribute is more than welcome to do so, even while it is under construction. Cheers Paul MacDermott (talk) 22:59, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

Rescued text
Text rescued from a past edition of the United Kingdom general election, 2010 article which may prove useful here. Paul MacDermott (talk) 14:00, 17 December 2011 (UTC)

TV Documentary
On the 29 July 2010, the BBC broadcast a special programme entitled 'Five Days that Changed Britain' on BBC Two about the five days between 7 May and 11 May 2010. The programme, presented by the BBC Political Editor Nick Robinson, contained several interviews with leading politicians including the Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Chancellor George Osborne, Foreign Secretary and key negotiator William Hague, Vince Cable, Shadow Education Secretary Ed Balls, Alastair Campbell and several other Liberal Democrat, Conservative and Labour MPs and Ministers, though not former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. In the programme, it was revealed that the coalition agreement had not yet been completed when Gordon Brown resigned on the 11 May. David Cameron said that when he went to meet the Queen at Buckingham Palace, the coalition deal had not been finalised. Formally, the Queen can only invite a prospective Prime Minister to form a Government; the shape of the Government is for the new Prime Minister to decide. William Hague said that as Cameron travelled to the Palace, the coalition agreement was still being completed and signed.


 * I don't think the programme is important enough to include in the article, but it could use it as a reference if needed. Baffle gab1978 (talk) 10:41, 14 December 2012 (UTC)

Refdump

 * Election 2010 Timeline: How coalition was agreed
 * BBC Search Results for this topic

More refs from removed paragraph
The Liberal Democrats and Conservatives entered into talks aimed at forming a coalition government. Talks between the Liberal Democrats and Labour were also held, but Brown's continued presence as Prime Minister was seen as a stumbling block to formulating a Labour-Liberal Democrat deal. A series of meetings between senior party officials were held over the weekend following the election, as each tried to negotiate a deal.

Background
I think we should start the article off with a few paragraphs talking about the build up to the election. Perhaps key issues over the previous years and areas that the parties were campaigning over. The existing background section could then be renamed "The election" or "Election results" with a main article link to United Kingdom general election, 2010. The way the article is currently laid out we tell readers that there was a hung parliament because none of the parties could secure a majority but make no mention of why. Road Wizard (talk) 15:30, 3 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Sounds good. A lot of the information could be got from Premiership of Gordon Brown and United Kingdom general election, 2010. Perhaps a bit on the financial crisis, Brown's slide in the popularity polls and the election campaign (which I guess has to include some reference to Bigotgate). I'll take a look and put something together. Paul MacDermott (talk) 15:38, 3 November 2012 (UTC)
 * I've made a start on a section, attempting to briefly summarise Labour's years in government, and some of the background leading up to the election. I've sourced quite a lot of stuff but there are still some things to find refs for, particularly the information in the latter half of the second paragraph. If you can help locate any sources that would be great. Cheers. Paul MacDermott (talk) 20:11, 3 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the refs. Paul MacDermott (talk) 10:29, 4 November 2012 (UTC)
 * And thanks for the graph, too. :) Paul MacDermott (talk) 13:36, 6 November 2012 (UTC)

Think I've done as much as I can with this for now. I've read through it a couple of times this afternoon and it seems to be fairly complete. I'll submit it for a copyedit then put it up for GA. Paul MacDermott (talk) 16:43, 8 November 2012 (UTC)

Peer review by Lemonade51
Copied from my talk page for future reference. All issues addressed, but still useful to be able to access it here. Paul MacDermott (talk) 11:33, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

Hi Paul. Noticed the article you have nominated for PR was closed sometime this morning without any feedback. Had a quick glance at the first two sections (lead looks fine) and leave you with some comments:


 * Background
 * "The Labour Party came into government under the leadership of Tony Blair in May 1997 after defeating the Conservative government of John Major at the 1997 general election, ending 18 years of Conservative rule." consider "The Labour Party came into government under the leadership of Tony Blair in May 1997 after the electoral wipeout of the Conservative government, led by John Major; this ended 18 years of Conservative rule."
 * Where is the citation for "Blair proved to be a popular Prime Minister during his first term in office, introducing legislation to establish a national minimum wage, reducing the length of hospital waiting lists..."
 * "He was also viewed by the media as lacking interpersonal skills", the article in correspondence says, "The conventional wisdom of the past three years is that Gordon Brown foundered because of his lack of inter-personal skills". Not necessarily the same – the wisdom might be that of the public. Perhaps it should rather be "He was also viewed by the media as someone who lacked interpersonal skills"?
 * "In a live press conference at Downing Street, Brown confirmed the election would be held on 6 May", confirmed suggests the date was predicted beforehand, but there is no mention of this in the sentence before. Consider called an election for or announced.
 * Sky News needs no italicising, its neither a television programme or print publication.


 * The election
 * "Throughout the day GfK NOP and Ipsos MORI conducted an exit poll on behalf of the BBC, Sky and ITV news services, the results of which were announced", replace last comma with a dash.
 * "Data gathered from individuals at 130 polling stations around the country suggested a hung parliament with an initial estimate" place comma between 'parliament' and 'with'.
 * Where is the ref to confirm "At 9:41am on 7 May, the BBC confirmed a "hung parliament", as it was by then impossible for the Conservative party to gain the number of seats needed to form a majority government"?

Feel free to get back to me if you have any queries. Lemonade51 (talk) 16:05, 23 June 2013 (UTC)