Don't Worry, be Happy!

- entry in BBC's “Have your say” on Sundag May 9th at about eleven o'clock EST

Here in the otherwise isolated (European) Continent some of us are watching the alarm in Britain with equal measures of bewilderment and bemusement.

Imagine another European country holding an election and having its pundits declaring a national crisis because a majority Government cannot be formed immediately on the back of 36.1% of the vote and predicting that markets and the world as you know it will be in complete turmoil lest there be a coalition formed before Monday morning.

I think I'll have to phone my aunt in Britain on Monday and ask her if the Sun has come up or everything has gone pitch black over there !

Perhaps I'm being a little paranoid but a part of me cannot help but think that all the commotion has been started to put pressure on the LibDem leader Nick Clegg to drop the demand for a referendum on electoral reform -?

I would warn him against even considering that. You guys have been offered and accepted some fine Committee or other a few times before and what has come of it? Nothing - as soon as the bigger party could cut their promises and run they have done so, be it Labour or the Conservatives. Don't agree to anything less than a written agreement on a referendum, its date and its choices.

You in the LibDem leadership will be accused of putting party before country ... Yeah, and that has never applied to neither Labour nor the Tories, right? Moreover, it really is in the national interest to finally have an electoral system that is fair, reflects people's actual voting and responds to the fact that nowadays Britain has at least a three-party system. Britain will have no stability until that happens.

As for a possible short-term mood swing against Mr Clegg, he should stick to his guns and not lose his bottle and say no to Cabinet posts in a Tory-led government either to put more pressure on the Tories or in return for a coalition with a Labour and nationalists with a four-year term agreement and said referendum.

The short-term anger will evaporate, not matter how much it is fuelled by the Tory press. As a former Tory Prime Minister, Harold MacMillan, said:

"A week is a long time in politics!"

Regards, Claus Piculell, MA, Denmark