Possible Hung Parliament in May/June 2009?

Not to sure of the term 'Hang up' you mention David?

if you refer to a 'hung parliment' then a 'Hung' parliment here in the UK is when  no party has an overall majority to govern as it thinks fit. Rather like a shareholder, if he owns more than 51% of the shares of a company he can control the company, knowing he cant be outvoted on policy.

In government, if a party doesnt have the the majority number of reps (Members of Parliment, or MP's) they need to rely on some members of other parties voting with them. This may seem a good way of keeping a party in line but as you say it in many cases it leads to 'grid-lock' or stalmate, and nothing would ever get done. In the Uk we unfortunately have the House of Lords, (Privilaged, non elected members), so even if a 'bill' eventually gets through the House of Commons (Elected MP's) the Lords' could stall it, hoping that it runs out of the set time limit, or fail to pass it. You realy need a Strong government, a weak government gets no-where as little would get 'passed' internally and other world leaders would see you as weak and avoide or disrespect the country.

Correct me if I'm wrong, David, but what I think David means, Michael, is the congressional gridlock he describes on the previous page.  In the US we have a term called "hung jury" to describe a situation in which a jury in a jury trial case can't come to a verdict because they can't agree.  So the process stops, and often requires re-trial with a new jury.  Our congress is so disfunctional these days that they can't do anything in any sort of a timely manner.  It's disgraceful.