【英语时差8,16】英国新首相-上

After days of political horse-trading the UK finally has a new government and a new Prime Minister, following the resignation of Labour's Gordon Brown on Tuesday evening. Since last Thursday's general election resulted in a hung parliament, a situation in which none of the political parties has an overall majority, British politicians have been attempting to form a coalition¹ government. Such a government is comparatively rare in the UK. Indeed this is the first coalition since the Second World War. So how did it happen? Last week's general election saw the public vote split amongst the political parties in such a way that no party achieved the 326 seats required to gain a majority and therefore form a government. This situation is known as a hung parliament, and means that two or more of the opposing parties have to unite in order to have more than 326 seats between them.

1 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。