All the signs are that in less than a week, Britain will be digesting the news that – for the second time running – a general election has given no single party an overall majority in the House of Commons. It would be nice to think the name “hung parliament” for a house thus divided against itself commemorates the remark of Benjamin Franklin on the eve of the American Revolution: “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” But seemingly not. Of all the permutations and combinations of “hanging together” that are discussed in the torrent of political commentary now swamping the media, only one idea seems to be supported by a consensus – that a minority government, led by one party but without enough votes to