Chapter 751: Hung Parliament
Just as Britain was about to usher in the general election, a very sensational incident occurred in the Gulf of Mexico near the United States.
This is the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
On the evening of April 20th local time, the "Deepwater Horizon" platform hired by British Petroleum to conduct drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico exploded due to methane leakage and caused a fire. The entire drilling platform soon fell into the sea of fire...
Although most workers were evacuated by lifeboat or rescued by helicopter, the final statistics showed that 11 workers were still missing and presumed to have died in the explosion.
After that, many ships tried to put out the fire, but failed. In the end, the "Deepwater Horizon" platform sank on the morning of April 22nd after burning for about 36 hours.
If it had come here, although it caused many casualties, it could only be regarded as a safety accident. What's more serious is that on the day when the Deepwater Horizon platform sank, it was discovered that the Macondo oil well, where the platform was drilling, began to leak crude oil...
According to the investigation report later released by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, it was believed that the problem with the cement used to reinforce the oil well was the main cause of the crude oil leak. The Macondo oil well had budget overruns and abnormal monitoring equipment before the oil spill. When implementing the oil well cement project, British Petroleum and Halliburton reduced the amount of cement injected into the oil well to save costs, causing problems with oil well safety.
Barron knew that this incident would cause very serious losses to both the local environment and British Petroleum.
In his previous life, British Petroleum was required to pay nearly $19 billion in total over 18 years to compensate for the losses caused by this incident, not counting the huge expenses during the handling of this oil spill.
It can be said that since the incident, countless media have been reporting on the incident every day, and even at the beginning, the news of the British general election was completely suppressed...
Because of this incident, United Energy Group and Kolo Oil Company also began to inspect their own and hired drilling platforms, and required the platforms that did not meet safety requirements to enter the shipyard for rectification and repair.
After all, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was too serious. Later, according to estimates, the total losses caused by the local American and British Oil Company exceeded 60 billion US dollars!
…
"Your Highness, I met with Mr. Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats yesterday..."
As Barron's public relations consultant, Annabelle Nolan became his representative when Barron was about to start the general election and it was not convenient for him to meet with some people in person to mediate between the various factions.
She said:
"Mr. Clegg is very happy to deepen our relationship and hopes to have the opportunity to meet you in person."
"He is a smart man..."
Barron smiled and said:
"In this election, it is very likely that the Liberal Democrats will become the party that is being wooed."
Indeed, as Barron said, on May 6, after the British general election began, the House of Commons increased from 646 seats in the last general election to 650 seats, and began to face competition.
However, in the end, the Conservative Party won 307 seats, the Labour Party won 255 seats, and the Liberal Democrats, the third largest party in Britain, won 59 seats.
This means that no party has won more than half of the seats in the House of Commons (325 seats) with a total of 650 seats.
The bad news for the Conservative Party, which has the most seats in Parliament, is that their seats do not reach more than half (at least 326 seats), so there will be a "hung parliament" situation...
The so-called hung parliament refers to the situation that no party has won more than half of the seats in the British general election, then there will be a "no majority parliament" situation. According to relevant British laws and practices, they can only form a coalition government with another party in Parliament to make their proportion in the House of Representatives exceed 50%.
Before this, there have been a total of 4 "hung parliaments" in British history, and this time will be the fifth time.
The good news is that with the seats obtained by the Labour Party, even if it forms a coalition government with the third largest party, the Liberal Democrats, its total seats will not reach 326 votes. Therefore, the only option at present is that the Conservative Party led by Cameron negotiates with the Liberal Democrats to form a coalition government and reach the statutory seats.
In this case, the Conservative Party naturally needs to make some concessions to the Liberal Democrats, but because only they can successfully form a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, they will not give up too many interests...
The final result is that Cameron and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg reached an agreement to form a coalition government, with Cameron as prime minister and Nick Clegg as deputy prime minister.
It is worth mentioning that in this election, Joe Harriman also successfully entered the House of Commons and became a member of parliament.
And after Cameron took office, in the list of cabinet members announced, Joe Harriman also successfully became the Minister of Women and Equality.
So far, she has also become the youngest female cabinet minister in British history and has attracted much attention.
……
"Mr. Brown, I wonder what your plans are after this?"
On May 11, Brown officially resigned as prime minister, and Cameron took over. After that, Barron also met with him.
"Afterwards?"
Brown's expression did not seem to change much, but Barron could still see a hint of loss in his eyes:
"Maybe I will do some charity work, or restart my academic work."
"Don't you plan to continue to seek other positions?"
Brown shook his head and said:
"I don't plan to work in those companies. In fact, I want to do something that can play my own value..."
Barron believes this. Brown does not value money. In Barron's previous life, Brown did not rely on becoming a "consultant" for some companies and giving speeches to make money like Blair did before. He was a very low-key person.
"I have an opinion here. I wonder if you are interested?"
When Barron met with him and talked about this topic, Brown had some guesses.
However, he guessed that Barron was going to hire him as one of his "consultants", but after his previous statement, Barron's words now of course ruled out such a possibility.
So he was a little curious:
"What do you mean?"
"I think you can try to compete for the chairmanship of the International Monetary Fund."
