Exciting times

Crikey,

Nationalist bid to force election

The SNP and Plaid Cymru have joined forces in an effort to try to force a general election.

The two parties are to table a motion next week calling for the dissolution of Parliament.

Gordon Brown has rejected Tory and Lib Dem calls for an election saying he wants to sort out the expenses system.

The motion comes two days before the European and English local elections and in the wake of a damaging series of revelations about MP expenses claims.

It will be the first time MPs will have a chance to formally express their support for an immediate election and could increase the pressure on Mr Brown to go to the country.

The SNP said they would be tabling their opposition day motion on Wednesday afternoon, giving MPs an opportunity to debate it in the Commons.

They are stressing that it is not a motion of "no confidence" in the government but that it could spark a general election, if enough MPs supported it.

...

The last Labour government was brought down by an SNP "no confidence" motion in 1979, although the then Prime Minister James Callaghan did not have a working Parliamentary majority, unlike Gordon Brown.

H/T Anna Raccoon