You shouldn't have blinked, Dave

Nick

I'd say that the biggest loser is Rupert Murdoch. Nice way to back a loser, Rupe.

As Melanie is so fond of saying, you'd have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.

andy t

spot on Mel, the tories need a strong leader desperately

Ganpat Ram

By the way, if Gordon Brown stays he's bad. If he goes, he's a villain.

So what will make you happy?

If he commits hara-kiri?

NH POL

Norman Tebbit just cannot believe Dave walked into this bear trap.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/normantebbit/100039171/clever-mr-clegg-gobbled-up-the-tories-concessions-then-sprang-his-trap/

Dave now either ends up with nothing or is so blackmailed by the Lib Dems that he takes office only to find he has nothing worth having.

Why isn't he listening to older, experienced voices? He's just being played like a fiddle.

Catesby

Unusually, you are wrong this time, Mel.

Cam's played a blinder.

A better demonstration of Lib Dem unscrupulousness and the perils of PR/AV could hardly be dreamed of.

While Dave acted with grace, helpfulness and dignity, both Lib Dems and Labour looked like chiselling crooks. The voters will not forget. Next time, the hitherto elusive landslide.

David Galea

It's time for a change... of Tory leader.

Dee Ranged

.

"If Cameron is so feeble under pressure from Nick Clegg, how would he react to the pressure from the enemies of this country, or in any kind of national crisis?"

Well said Mel!

Ray

All it looks like Cameron has promised is a referendum on AV.

Therafter, it's over to the voters once again.

Baron

Melanie, that’s one of the rare occasions I beg to differ from your view.

If the Con/Lib pact stays the Tories will be in office, but not in power; the Con’s colour doesn’t bland easily with the Con’s blue. During the exercise, Libs and Labs supporters were propping up each other in the marginals, more of the supporters of both parties will be happier together than would have been the case for Lib’s and Con’s supporters if the Con/Lib coalition had gone ahead.

The Tories may like to drop Cameron, and switch to being conservative again.

The Lab/Lib stitch-up will not survive for long, after the austerity pain begins to bite it will fall apart.

The 1-2-3 AV system ain’t as bad as you seem to think. It can deliver an over 50% Commons majority for a single party, and it makes more votes to count.

The Tories may have lost a battle, they may yet win the war if they rub off the pink from the blue.

Patience’s the virtue the Tories appear to be lacking; the Lab/Lib pact will kill off the latter and put the former into long grass for a generation at least.

Annie Loyedeer

Cameron is not offering AV - only a vote - a referendum - on it. He has to appear reasonable and squeaky clean throughout this process. If indeed the Libs and Labour form a minority coalition still headed by Brown don't forget, it is reasonable to assume it will implode within a few months. The Tories will then be in a strong position to say - we tried coalescing and it doesn't work. A hearty return to the right with David Davis, a drafted Boris Johnson and the inestimable William Hague up front could result in a clear and decisive victory. These last few days have convinced most voters of the value of our FPTP system. The Lib Dems are not to be trusted. You either vote left or right.

Pot Head

What could be more democratic that the public getting a referendum of PR?

Nectarinia

NH Pol, Lord Tebbit also updated approvingly that Cameron has told the odious, duplicitous Clegg "to put up or shut up", (Tebbit's words). Waqs the election a referendum on electoral "reform". If so then perhaps the Lib Dems should note that over two thirds of the electorate voted against it, and live with that fact!

Callan

He blinked a long time before yesterday Melanie and that's what cost the Tories the election. Grammar Schools, Immigration, the Lisbon treaty referendum - need I go on. Cameron was bending whichever way the wind blew in an attempt to court the votes of the very people whose self interest means voting Conservative is for them unthinkable. As you point out here, if he couldn't subdue and chastise Clegg what would he do when a real crisis came along.

Joe Strummer

Why the whinging ? If the British people wanted a Tory Government with a clear mandate to rule then they would have brought the Tories home with a landslide election victory. That they didn't must say something.....

Augustus

Clearly, after 13 years in power, the Labour party was voted out. Equally clearly, the Tories under David Cameron have been unable fully to profit from this because the electoral system is biased against them. The labour vote is more efficiently distributed in the marginal constituencies, while much of the Tory vote is wasted in building up large majorities in safe seats. If this election's figures were reversed
and Labour had secured 36% of the vote, with the Conservatives
on 30%, Labour would have had a majority of around 100 seats. At the present time of economic crisis the British electoral system has failed to deliver. And a failed unstable government is not without risks in the present climate. Hopefully, whoever takes charge, a dissolution will be imminent after the summer, and a second election will be held at which the British public will produce a winning result for the Tories.

True Bred Pomponian

Is it a cast iron guarantee of a referendum?

Ian C

Once again I disagree. A referendum for AV was anyway on the table in Labour's manifesto. It would be easier to ensure a no vote from being in gov't than opposition. So offering it was merely a manouever to be seen to be trying to answer Lib Dem objections and not getting accused of inflexibility over something that will prove trivial and as much as 90% irrelevant to the true realities of the situation.

Cameron has all the cards and he knows it. The Lib Dems have confirmed they are actually prats by listening to Brown' uber-cynical non-resignation. The counter offer just kept them honest, no more.

It is much more important to be able to share the blame for Tory cuts with "that nice Mr Cable" so when the coalition/pact breaks up the Tories can nail the Lib Dems with its failure.

NH POL

So The Times thinks the price is five ministerial posts and Nick Clegg as Deputy Prime Minister.

Since we're now being run by them, can someone please strike up the Muppets' theme tune.

Robert Mitchum

How can anyone have any respect for a government containing Clegg and his creeps. This whole episode is shaming. The sight of the gullible, overconfident and self-satisfied Letwin, Gove, and Haigh grinning just before they were knifed by Clegg bodes ill for the country. What buffoons. This is unspeakable.

Verity

David Galea: "It's time for a change... of Tory leader ...". It's been time for a change of Tory leader for 4 1/2 years.

Joe Strummer writes, inexplicably: "If the British people wanted a Tory Government with a clear mandate to rule then they would have brought the Tories home with a landslide election victory."

If there had been a Tory leader, yes. As it is, pinko Dave Cameron is neither a Tory nor a leader.

Antoninus Pius

Come now Melanie, he only blinked because it was in the national interest to do so. Just like Brown is willing to resign in the nation interest, and Clegg is willing to play both Labour and the Tories off against each other in the national interest.

Linda

I no longer live in England so I must confess a certain ignorance on the matter, but could someone please explain why, as soon as it became obvious that Clegg and Brown weren't going to bond, Cameron didn't call Clegg's bluff and politely tell him to get knotted? Am I missing the point?

david elder

Mel, I don't fully get the British situation from down here in Australia and am unclear on AV in particular. So the following may be off-target: But wouldn't it have been best if Tory and Labour formed a temporary alliance to vote out first-past-the-post, and vote in preferential voting like we have here in Australia - not PR or whatever it is the LibDems want? Hung parliaments are endemic to PR whereas preferential usually produces a clear winner over here in lower houses. (Upper houses are more like PR and do often produce hung outcomes, but at least a workable government can usually be formed in the lower house.)

Gary Wintle

Clegg was "shopping the deal", he had to do the talks with Labour to silence the left of his party.

Its the sort of thing a great old Liberal like Asquith would have done.

Hopefully the much needed tax break for low wage earners will happen as it will soften the blow of the cuts and reinvigorate the working classes.

Mark (Mk1) Who used to vote labour...! May 12th, 2010 1:15am

Shame on me for ever voting labour Eh! But then I had a soft spot for Blair for a while there.
I also hated him at times and thought he would betray us all. Maybe he has...
I switched off in Mid Crise this week and missed the realisation of a few possibilities I had thought could happen. But then there are only so many possibilities to work through.
I dont like the nonchalance with which Labour has lately left Brown to resign.
Really it is not now Brown who is so dreadful it is the plan of Labour to destroy illegally all opposition in the UK to their euro-arabian dream.

Terry Thankfully Now in Oz

He ain't no Maggie Thatcher!! Is she available, by any chance?

Anyway, the 'Great' can now be effectively dumped permanently from the 'Britain' bit.

just Louise

Dave's a great off the cuff speaker - I'll grant him that.
But what did he mean when he paid tribute to the outgoing government for making Britain "more open at home and more compassionate abroad"?
The only openness I can think of is those wide open borders ...

Gary Wintle

I personally think everyone in this country who supported Blair's ego-trip invasion of Iraq should be taxed 200%.

Aelle

Dealt a weak hand by the electorate's media fuelled infatuation with Pretty Boy Clegg, Cameron has responded with a pragmatic and statesmanlike approach that deserves respect from all who have the long term interests of this country at heart. Going it alone would, dear Melanie , have led to a dissolution and new election in next to no time, with no guarantee of any discernibly different outcome. As it is, he has emerged as the leader of a coalition of the two parties who increased their total votes at the electiobn, and has replaced the discredited Labour government with an administration led by Conservative politicians in every position of critical importance.

Politics, so it runs, is the art of the possible. It seems to me we should be thanking Cameron for having the balls to put the Conservative party back where , not so long ago, it seemed to be impossible - in power.

Margaret Muller-Johansson

We have a new prime minister, HOORAY!.

Raymond D

What worries me about this whole situation , is that the Liberal social agenda will be adopted wholesale by a "Conservative" government that seems to have lost its way on such matters . On drugs, on crime, on gay rights , on marriage etc etc, the Liberals are even more to the left than Harriet Harman/labour ! has the average Brit done their research on Liberal social policy. I doubt it !

Robin

I think that it's probably a little premature to describe Dave as "so feeble under pressure from Nick Clegg". Promising a referendum on PR is quite cunning as he hasn't committed to what sort of PR, when the referendum might be and what questions would be asked.

Undoubtedly Clegg is very lucky to be in the Cabinet as many voters will, I feel, be regretting voting for a politician who is clearly rather shifty.

Dave has locked the LDs into his team for several years and I go along with the idea that not having a general election in 6 months is terrific.

As with all such situations, the proof the pudding.. etc., and how the Coalition deals with our financial crisis will be the key. Beside that issue, electoral reform is hardly important.

Give the boy a chance.

NH POL

Exactly, Raymond D. Where's the conservatism in all this?

http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2010/05/what-will-real-conservatives-do-about-this-torberal-government.html

SimonP

On Radio 4 this morning, William Hague (no less) agreed with Nick Robinson's assessment, that the Conservatives are a "socially liberal" party while the LibDems are a "economically liberal" party.

So the truth is as many of us have perceived it all along, and at least one of the leading people in the Conservative Party knows it.

There is no center-right party in British politics today (except for perhaps UKIP).

Baron

A constitutional reform, and not just how we vote, is the ONLY positive aspect of the marriage. It may not suit many Tories (their objection is mostly because of their bigoted ignorance), but it’s the wish of the electorate, and that’s it. Even on May 6 with the high turnout more than a third of those eligible to vote didn’t cast their votes because they’ve wised up a long time ago that their votes mean bugger all. What we inevitably end up under the current system is Governments of minority dictatorships leading to a mess of one sort of another that the great unwashed has to clean up.

aelle

From Westminster School

Dear Mr & Mrs Cameron,

I thought you would like to know how well young David is settling in at the new school.

As you know, due to shortages we have had to ask one of the smaller houses to muck in with David's group. I have to say he has been quite first rate about this, even taking the other young House Captain under his wing and looking after him really well.

Yesterday David went to see Matron, and we were a little concerned as Matron is rather set in her ways and a bit of a stickler for protocol, while David, or Dave, as I understand he likes to be known, can be quite informal on occasions. I'm sure it's just how young people are these days. But everything went swimmingly and Matron took an instant liking to him. To be honest she never really got on with the last Head Boy, who had some behavioural problems and would never share things with the other boys. In the end we had to ask for him to be taken home. The poor boy locked himself in his room and refused to come out. Very distressing.

Today David has been choosing his House Prefects, and I must say has done a fine job, even picking one of the girls which not everyone would agree with. And even if he's put most of his close chums in the best jobs, that's only to be expected really.
Of course we'll have to wait for the end of term report, but I know you would be happy to know he's off to such a good start.

The Head

just Louise

Oh, I say, Aelle, absolutely spiffing, old bean!
(Loved your earlier post too, btw)

William Boyd

Well I do agree with all this in every detail but with the one caveat that in the real world of politics we are ultimately talking about gathering power and if George Osborne's calculation that a minority governement couldn't even get off the ground then some of sort of pact was inevitable.

However I don't think he was right for the reason he gave publicly, that the Queen wouldn't have worn it which I'm pretty sure was both not the case as well as constitutionally bad form to suggest at that point in the proceedings (I do grow increasingly worried about how intellectually lightweight Osborne really is). Nor does it explain why Dave didn't settle for a supply and confidence arrangement unless it was because he imagined a Lab-Lib coalition could be pulled off, a worrying example of his political judgement if so.

What astonishes me about all this is the sudden love affair with AV on both sides of the political divide. If one postulates (surely reasonably) that an alternative vote is likely to tend to the centre rather than the fringe then it follows as night follows day that AV favours the centre but what is far far worse is that I suspect that as the centre's share of the vote reaches some critical level while at the same time the two competing fringe parties' share of the vote remains roughly equal, then the whole arrangement become quite unstable with seats changing hands essentially on the balance of probability rather than on any genuine swing in sentiment.

I would like to see a decent mathematical analysis of AV, one at least sophisticated enough to use the machinery of conditional probability models, stochastic statistical models and computer simulations (that is to say roughly speaking the kind of mathematics used to model stock market derivatives).

AV is a very different kettle of fish from PR it seems to me.

Arbuthnot

"If there had been a Tory leader, yes. As it is, pinko Dave Cameron is neither a Tory nor a leader."

good to hear from you, Verity - keep it up, lass

Australians for Non-Bigoted Thinking

Melanie, you are one of the few political pundits that got it right.

Cameron should have at least tried to call Clegg's bluff, and attempted to form a minority government.

A Machiavellian Labour-LibDem coalition was a problematic reality, and as you say, would have been discredited anyway.

allan pond

Cameron is supporting the Clegg like the noose supports the hanged man. He's played a blinder, achieved office and ensured that the odium that will inevitably come his and his party's way when the savage cuts have to be made, is shared by the Libs. He's been pretty shrewd it seems to me, not weak as you claim.

YA

Tory is the party of rusty Dickensian capitalists, and all sorts of rich snobbish degenerate parasytes.

Labour is a party of Soviet-style bureaucracy, lazy lumpen nihilists, and all sorts of tribal mediocrities, both local and imported.

LibDems - something in between.

So - cast Your votes Ladies and Gentlemen. Isn't our democracy beautiful.

Paris Claims

Cameron is a liberal,he wanted these policies,and he got them.

Archie

And isn't this the perfect opportunity for Cameron to dump everything remotely Tory?