The Lib Dems' campaign rhetoric will make it that much harder for them to do a deal in the event of a hung parliament

Sacre Bleu

So you've heard nothing from Labour and you are surprised? Once they start on the campaign proper they will have to start spending THEIR money. Up to now all is being paid for from the state coffers so you will wait for a date until the very last minute. A flight to Afghanistan today was hardly an off the cuff visit; prepared questions from Chilcot, prepared answers from Brown then off to canvas the votes of British servicemen. This 'person' is the mouthpiece for a very calculating party machine.

oldtimer

The Oborne article is believable. I imagine that the Conservatives could make use of it as another Vote yellow, get Brown argument - if, that is, they ever get their act together.

As for the absence of Labour literature that is easily explained: they are still waiting for their share of the cheque from Mr Whelan of Unite.

hmmm

What a ridiculous message.

Whatever else you might feel about the Tories, absolutely no-one believes that voting Tory will let Labour back in.

That statement is so ludicrous, that it's almost an insult to the local public.

denis cooper

Politicians are only there to serve the people, they like to claim.

So if the people don't trust any of the three main parties to form a government on its own and would prefer a National Government - which increasingly seems to be the case, going by the recent opinion polls - then it's the duty of the politicians to provide an effective National Government.

If the politicians in any party are so lacking in patriotic spirit that they'd refuse to work with politicians of other parties to see the country through a particularly hard time, then it could reasonably be asked whether they'd be fit to govern alone.

Andy Leeds

I think the Oborne article in the Daily Mail is entirely correct. I bet Labour and the Lib/Dems are busy cementing a deal which will keep Labour in power. And I wouldn't like betting that this is exactly what will happen.

London Calling

Spot on Denis, my very thoughts also. In the event of a possible Hung Parliament I would expect all parties to at least get it together for Britain in her dire hour of need for the British people. If they do not, then as you suggest that neither parties represent anyone but themselves the veil would have been lifted and Parliament should be dissolved by Her Majesty the Queen, supported by the Church of England until such time that a realistic alternative is warranted.

Now that’s what I can Radical …Cromwell was a Wart and Politicians have become his Warts and all, Long Live the Queen…

YA

great performance from Nigel Farage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bypLwI5AQvY

UKIP looks like decent choice!
They oppose idiotic AGW religion.
They are anti third-world blackmail.
Oh and BTW who invited Geert Wilders recently to Parliament?
Hmm.. UKIP.

Publius

No! on the idea of "National government". It's absurd and plays right into the hands of the left (and those who think how nice it would be if only politicians could be nice to each other). All it would be, in reality, is a ridiculous grand coalition which would yet further diminish our choice and liberty. Just like the EU.

Craig Strachan

You live in Hampstead & Kilburn, do you?

So are you posh or Irish? Perhaps both?

denis cooper

I'd agree with you, Publius, under normal circumstances.

In normal times my preference would be for a strong government matched by a strong opposition.

(Others would prefer a strong government made up of members of their own political gang, and no opposition at all, but that's by the way.)

However these are not normal times: the country is on the brink, and all politicians have an paramount patriotic duty to be willing to work together as necessary to pull it back from the brink.

Afterwards, when the crisis has passed, the usual adversarial politics can resume.

Publius

@Denis Cooper
"I'd agree with you, Publius, under normal circumstances." etc.

-- The problem is, Labour's high-tax, big-government, Stasi-state solution is wholly at variance with what I, and probably you, regard as the right solution.

To use the parallel of WWII, it's as though one side of a putative National gov't favoured surrender, and the other favoured fighting Hitler. I put it in stark terms, but it illustrates what I mean. In such circumstances, messing about with "common ground" and compromise is worse than useless.

denis cooper

The "common ground" must be an overall deficit reduction plan which the markets find convincing. If that has to involve a blend of (somewhat) different political and economic philosophies as espoused by the different political gangs, so be it. It would only be for a five year Parliament at most, and probably much shorter than that. Any politician who refuses to contemplate doing that does not deserve to be elected.

Publius

@Denis Cooper
"The "common ground" must be an overall deficit reduction plan which the markets find convincing."

-- Which is what the Tories propose. And, by and large, fiscal prudence and reluctance to embrace pie-in-the-sky all-embracing "new paradigms" is always the conservative way.

I know that I, for one, would never vote for a candidate who supported, or advocated, a grand coalition.