Coalition in crisis

According to an article in the Daily Mail 25th July, the coalition government is now in crisis over the latest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) announcement.  It is said that the coalition is turning to "in fighting."  In previous Parliaments, the Prime Minister would have brought them all to heel by the mere hint that he might consider calling an election.  One wonders whether the Prime Minister now regrets the enactment of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act 2011 which, basically, says that the next election will be on 7th May 2015.  The Act does not prevent an earlier election but one of the procedures in section 2 of the Act must apply: the House of Commons passes a motion for an election - or - the House votes that it has no confidence in the government and the period of 14 days after the day on which that motion is passed ends without the House passing a motion that it has confidence in the government.

On the GDP announcement see Director of Finance Online