Labour began to show a serious tactical interest in AV during the 1929-31 Labour government of Ramsay MacDonald, which was running a minority administration dependent on Liberal support.
Against that background, the prospect of a minority government dependent on other parties committed to change is hardly so terrifying, let alone illegitimate.
Prior to industrialisation, most people needed land to farm while the landowning minority were dependent upon rent-paying tenants to finance their relatively opulent lifestyles.
The elections of October 1972 left Trudeau and the Liberals much weakened, with a minority government dependent on the coalition support of the New Democratic Party (NDP).
From being able to govern as a majority, Portugal Ahead now faces minority status, dependent in large part on an agreement with the Socialist party to get its programme, or a moderate version of its programme, through parliament.
That has been Poland's fate since the collapse of communism in 1989, and it looks like continuing after a political deal this week that produced a muddled-sounding minority government, dependent on two dodgy and eccentric populist parties.
But the Telegraph added: "If we were to make one criticism it is that there was not much in the speech that spoke to the great bulk of the country - the working, aspirational families who are not poor or from an ethnic minority or dependent on the state and who sometimes feel left out of the political debate".
The German case illustrating the changing European base line on national identity comes alongside the attempts of traditional Dutch middle-ground parties to form a minority government dependent on support from the anti-immigrant Freedom Party, or the like-minded Sweden Democrats' first-time election into the Swedish Parliament this past weekend.
Without enough Liberal Democrat MPs to keep the next Government safe, stable and fair, either Ed Miliband or David Cameron will be left to run a messy and unstable minority Government, dependent on the SNP on the one hand or Ukip and the DUP on the other.
