It’s beyond me.
But that’s the offer Cameron has just made.
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Clegg is in a weak position because the Lib Dems bombed last night. Cameron knows that.
If the Tories had been 40 or 50 short of a majority, then PR might have been on the table. But in fact they are only 20 or so short. Hence no offer of PR on the table.
Because the financial health of the country is more important than PR?
Because Brown has no authority left and it would feel wrong to have an unelected PM immediately after an election. So Labour have counted themselves out of any potential coalition.
LibDems have nowhere else to go and the Tories could survive without them. Indeed, the dream scenario for the Tories is to have another election in 6 months.
No coalition deal is worth taking. There is no real commitment from the Tories. They will use the LDs and then dump them and call an election as soon as they think they can win. Meanwhile the LDs will share responsibility for the Tories mess.
@James from Durham
We should not forget what Mervyn King said – whoever wins this will be out of office for a generation
Almost makes me want Cameron to get it knowing he will not be able to change the electoral system in his favour
As Peter said – Clegg’s hand is weak. Cameron knows Clegg doesnt want to touch Labour with a barge pole:
1) knows the electorate won’t take Brown as PM (Clegg’s promise for change will look silly if we are stuck with Brown again).
2) knows the electorate won’t take another unelected Labour PM (and knows there is no obvious candidate). Plus, Labour will tear itself apart in the fight to get the job.
3) knows that if a weak coalition with labour fails in the next few months (likely) and we have another election, then both Lab and Con will turn on the LDs with a vengeance as a party that puts itself ahead of the nation, and has caused the election. I suspect the electorate may then turn on the LDs.
I suspect Cameron will take a few LDs into the Cabinet (Vince C, maybe a couple of others, not sure what Clegg’s role will be). Maybe a couple of policy ideas, that’s about it.
Representation is of course one of the Lib Dems core values. Like it or not the Tories have more seats and represent a bigger percentage of the electorate than anyone – how on earth then could the Lib Dems support anyone else (Labour)
Doesn’t particularly matter that the Tories have most seats and votes as they only had 37% of the vote. And yes, I do realise that Labour had even less in 2005 – but that’s the daftness of the current system for you.
If you add Labour and the Lib Dems together you’ve got 53% of the vote – that’d be the highest vote share for a govt since the National Government of the 1930s. Seems like a pretty strong mandate to me.
I don’t think we’ll get a Labour-Lib Dems + minor parties coalition though. Even with Greens, SDLP, Alliance and Plaid Cymru in it it would only just have a majority of sitting MPs. Plus I’m not sure Brown could get all his MPs to vote for an electoral reform bill anyway.
I think the Con/Lib Dem talks will fail and we’ll get a minority Tory govt – which will most likely be HIGHLY unpopular after a very short space of time! with a new leader, Labour’s popularity is likely to make a sharp recovery.
@Howard
Agreed, entirely
It’s the only one that will work for now
And I think it’s what the country wanted
A weak Tory government to deliver some pain, prove it’s the wrong option, and to then spit it out again
“If you add Labour and the Lib Dems together you’ve got 53% of the vote … Seems like a pretty strong mandate to me.”
An if you add the Tory and Lib Dems together then you’ve got 60% of the vote…which seems like an even stronger mandate to me.
@Peter
and if you added Labour in it would be a bigger mandate still
but if you believe that you’re out with the fairies because there’s no chance they could govern together
Apples and oranges Peter