Oh brave new world

shorpe

"Now the Cameroons think that by governing with the LibDems they will finally prove they aren’t the nasty party because the Lib Dems are ‘nice’. Such thinking displays a quite extraordinary shallowness."

Yes, I agree. Your thinking does display a quite extraordinary shallowness. In your mind, the world is divided binarily into people who agree with you in every respect and people who want to destroy civilisation as we know it. Sounds pretty shallow to me.

Call Me Dave

Welcome to the Con/Dem Nation. The only winners in this comical farrago will be David Miliband's Labour Party in 2015.

Still, at least Ken Clarke's back in the cabinet. Nice to have some Europhiles back in Government.

Peter Crawford

Disagree with shorpe. In fact his/her nasty little snipe exemplifies what is wrong with the lib/left mindset. They think they are "nice" and "caring" even when making vicious little jibes at perfectly respectable people. Shorpe, take a running jump, you toad.

Sam Davidson

Miss Phillips, I always enjoy reading your analysis and agree with you on many subjects. I was just wondering, however, what you actually propose? Are we conservatives now to abandon a party whose ideology is fairly close to ours the day after it finally regains power?

Sulis

So it would have been better for the country for the Tories to abandon it to a Lib-Lab pact, in the cynical hope that it would be disastrous? Gosh, I'm so glad you weren't leading the Tories over the last few days.

Aberdeen Angus

How utterly unsurprising. Of the two I think I have more respect for Cameron, at least he's just a cynic who only believes in himself. Clegg and his party actually seem to believe the absurd nonsense of political correctness aka cultural marxism.

shorpe - your use of the infantile 'I know you are but what am I' argument suggests that you fall nto the same category. At the risk of sounding manichean it has to be said that cultural marxists like clegg are just not good people.

Hadrian

If this all goes pear shaped, at least the remaining Liberals can rejoin the old Liberal Party which still exists. What of the Tories? UKIP for some?!
Interesting times, indeed!

Colin Cumner

Much as I welcome the change of Government in Britain and wish both Cameron and Clegg good fortune for the difficult days ahead, I find this a strange marriage as the two Parties' individual ideologies are so very different. Time will tell, of course, if this unlikely union will, in fact, work. I'll be the first to congratulate the two men if it does but while I am far from sorry to see Brown and New Labour pass into history, I do look upon this new double-act as a latter-day version of The Odd Couple.

Laurence

i saw Fraser on the news tonight... i thought his comments were very very negative... and not very helpful...its people like him and the media that need to give things a chance or else you stifle change...lets give change a chance

Truthtriumphs

Hopefully, this unsuitable marriage will end in a quick divorce, and Michael Gove, by far the outstanding member of this government, will replace Cameron as leader.

Eckhard

Dear Melanie,

As a German I'm pleased to hear that Britain is on the brink of the Apocalypse.

Baron

Melanie, spot on.

For Cameron, it had to be the Con/Lib marriage, anything short of it would have him walking. For the Tories, it’s a disaster as we are to find out when the shite hits the unwashed, and the passing of responsibility for it begins. What does it say about the conservative faction within the Tory party though? Have they given up?

In2minds

Eckhard @ May 12th, 2010 11:50pm - Can I ask if you are a friend of Richard of York and Fatbloke on tour?

Roger K

You poor souls!
Whatever the result of this last election Britain was going to be the loser.
Britain like many Western Nations has no genuine politicians let alone statesmen. They will cement themselves in with propotional representation because the systems they favour are like the New Zealand one not like the Swiss version. Here in New Zealand we had MMP foisted on us and have been trying to get rid of it ever since. For a good take on this see Muriel Newman's site www.nzcpr.com 'Proportionate Representation, Disproportionate power'
Have you noticed how all these so called centre right guys look the same? look at our prime minister John Key, David Cameron and Nick Clegg. They cauld all come out the same sausage machine. Is this a conspiracy?

Lee Jakeman

There is another way of looking at things.

Together, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats took about 60% of the UK vote. Even in Scotland, they took a combined 39% of the vote, not far behind Labour's 42%. In Wales, they took a combined 46% of the vote, compared to Labour's 36%.

Quite rightly, the Labour Party is out in the cold altogether - a just punishment, many would say, for their recent incompetence and negligence.

It might not be fashionable to say so, but this is probably a far more representative government than has been admitted.

John Cronin

I don't think this coalition will last long: reckon 80% of Lib Dem activists would rather have Labour in power. At a grass roots level, Tory and Lib Dem activists actively hate each other - And how the hell did they manage to stitch the whole thing up with virtually no consultation with the grass roots? Expect a lot of Liberals to defect and a lot of Tories to join Ukip

Tactically, the best thing Cameron could have done was show a bit of patience, give Labour enough rope to hang emselves, then go for a majority in 9 months or a year.

TomTom

Dear Melanie,

As a German I'm pleased to hear that Britain is on the brink of the Apocalypse.

and we in Britain are feeling for you as Merkel destroys Germany's future as effectively as Heinrich Bruening.

Gary Wintle

Unless the banks are split up and Glass Steagal is reinforced, this country is finished.
Investment bankers have no right to gamble with MY money, allowing them to do so is Fascism.

If you think the bankers have learnt from their mistakes you are a fool, they know they will always be bailed out, so they will carry on as before.

Ronnie

Are we, as a nation, to wait until the conditions are absolutely 100% right for the advents of a 100% pure (whatever that means) Conservative government? How long should we wait, I wonder and who should form our governments in the meantime?

Meanwhile, out in the real world where everything disappoints and we never get all that we want...

Emmet Sweeney

As usual Melanie your analysis is spot on. We're in for a rough ride. The only reason Cameron went with a Lib/Dem coalition was fear for his own position. But by joining with the essentially Marxist Lib/Dems he has shown his true colours and condemned the country to the scrap heap. His refusal to listen to voters' concerns over Europe, crime and immigration should have served as a warning.

-Ed.

As a Yank across the pond, I confess to being confused by the Con/Dem coalition. Yet it seems clear that... oh hell, nothing seems clear anymore. I'm even having a difficult time telling Cameron and Clegg apart in the news photographs. Were they twins separated at birth?

Jez

This is it then.... i've had 2 days of slating the Tories & Lib Dems, but now they're here.

My main personal issue is Islam- and the spread of it from Bradford to where i live in Leeds.

Many on this blog will be focused on how Lib Dem influence will effect international policy of the Tories in the middle east.

I am quite optimistic / excited with a new approach to entrepreneurial initiative- e.g. (hopefully) to give real incentive to people that are trying to move forward.

The commitment to hold a referendum if the EU tries to seize anymore power from the UK is also heartening.

Let's see what happens now for a week or two.

Michael

Don't you ever get bored of your relentless negativity and sweeping generalisations?

Its just dull.

Mr R

We got Ant & Dec for PM. Wow, what a turn up for the books! [Though, that said, I do wish them well and am naively hopeful.]

Bob, son of Bob

Melanie Phillips sums up the Liberals very well: “…not nice at all…, replacing truth, justice and morality by ideology and the demonisation of dissent.”

A sad reflection on the level of awareness of the electorate of the true nature of these people is the way the electorate seemed to warm to Nick Clegg after the TV debates, and actually believed him when he used Orwellian truth speak to tell the voters that Liberals are nice, and different, and above party politics. It shows what you can get away with when the TV media are on your side.

I think Aberdeen Angus is correct. David Cameron on a Dispatches programme before the election said something along the lines of not having strong convictions and I think this is true. His smile, his energy, and the keen look in his eye are all just his ambition for the top job, that is all. Although there were no cheers from any crowds when he finally made it, his sponsors in the anti-British anti-morals anti-justice pro-1984 TV media seemed happy enough. Now they can work on his TV image together, whilst behind the scenes the nest of vipers which is the Liberal Party in the government can continue, together with Tory vipers, Labour’s task of strengthening the power of all those other nests of vipers already established in our institutions such as in local education authorities; and these nests of vipers, unlike David Cameron, really do have strong convictions.

Conservative MPs with any morals must have a heavy heart at present as the vipers continue spread their poison under their watch.

DougS

We need a few ground rules for the new coalition, Viz.

1 - No tongues

2 - Restrictions on the use of the word 'progressive'

3 - Ban on the use of the expression 'going forward'

4 - Only blue ties to be worn

Melanie, you didn't mention my biggest worry, the new minister for energy (and 'climate change') Christopher Murray Paul Huhne.

What eco-loony policies are we going to have to swallow?

Thomas

I've been leafing through my J.S. Mill. How is this stuff "true" liberalism? I don't just mean the vindictive tone, I mean what is said.

Neil Craig

"Progressive" is not an un-Tory title. For many decades the Scottish Conservatives in council elections called themselves Progressives. I would much rather then used the term than see it adopted by a ragtag of Marxists & "environmentalists".

Doug I share your worry about having windmillist Huhne running the double headed department of "Energy & Climate Change". True the agreement still keeps nuclear on the table though the LDs, fascinatingly are allowed to vote against it in Parliament in the expectation that the Labour opposition won't. It seems unlikely we will build nuckes as fast or as plentifully as needed to stop the lights going out, let alone to let us have electricity at 1/4 the current rate as they have in France.

DougS

Neil Craig
May 13th, 2010 2:47pm

'...the agreement still keeps nuclear on the table..'

That's true Neil but they've agreed that nuclear power stations will have to be built without any public subsidy. Not a terrible idea, but subsidies (taxes) apply to wind turbines, solar panels, photo-voltaics and the like - all uneconomic and totally useless in providing for our energy needs.

Given Huhne's previous anti-nuclear stance and his (now) influential position, it's going to be difficult to get any nuclear power stations built. Especially as he really believes that 'green' energy measures can fill the gap - it's a preposterous stance!

Australians for Non-Bigoted Thinking

Camerons's whoring might buy him a fancy car and fine threads, but his soul and that of the country may be left in tatters, in a burnt out wreck that was once Great Britain.

Dave M

I differ on this one. I think Cameron has done everything right by bringing in the Lib Dems properly and sweeping the rug out from beneath Labour. The Lib Dems alone wouldn't be a good government but they do have some decent policies and ideas that could work, such as getting rid of tuition fees and so forth. I also like their stance on civil liberties (against I.D. cards).
At the end of the day, The Tories are now back in office and the fact they have an alliance with the Lib Dems may well help the Tory image. The Tories are still viewed by many voters as a rich man's party which isn't the case. They've actually been very pragmatic and even generous to the Lib Dems which is a good start in showing they can govern sensibly.
It all depends whether the two parties are mature enough to give and take on both sides so they can get on with important issues.
I'm just glad Labour are finally out of office. There is just a chance it could work.

Dave M

"Together, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats took about 60% of the UK vote."

I agree. Also, Nick Clegg did say he wanted to tighten up immigration even if he believed he could do it after an amnesty. This amnesty idea was a bad one but he did accept education and immigration have to be dealt with. Clegg also comes across well as a speaker and seems to get on with Cameron.
I'd hate to see the Lib Dems in on their own but allied with the Tories they actually have one or two good ideas to throw in. Not all Lib Dem policies are bad. It's just nobody expected such an unusual chain of events. I think Cameron has gotten it right and surprised many Lib Dem voters as to the fact the Conservatives can be more than generous and open to some give and take.

mrsgillianduffy

All very interesting but no one would vote for a shrew would they?

Between Mel and the success of her moral crusade lies the unfortunate roadblock of the British electorate. If you've got a clever plan to win an election based on critical analysis of the fiscal deficit pray do tell.

All it took for the gay nation to get its knickers in a twist and arms flapping wildly was for the Observer to dig up some reference to a Conservative candidate performing what amounted to exorcism to cure homosexuality. Quite how or why anyone would want to police what people do in their own homes in their spare time frankly escapes me. It certainly seems to me to be a little beyond the scope of government responsibility.

The Conservatives are still suffering from Maggie's excessive zeal at Scotland's expense and managed one seat there. They romped home in England by a several country miles. Perhaps they could have romped even further but both LibDems and Labour fought a good campaign and shored up their respective votes.

Do try cheering up a bit Mel. The new government's not even a week old and already ID Cards are out the window. Putting Lord Tebbit in charge of Conservative Party policy and campaigning would have done nothing to put an end to Ahmedinijad's nuclear programme. Sorry.

Linda

With the UK's national debt hovering around 1.4 trillion pounds, I think it's reasonably fair to report that the party's over. Do any of these parvenu politicians really believe they can turn this catastrophic situation around? How ANYONE in Britain could have voted labour after it spent us into this black hole is mind-numblingly baffling - even the ape creatures of the Indus could understand that any debt needs to be repaid eventually. To be discussing the likelihood of the LibDems surviving or whether Cameron is the best man for the job is a bit like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Baron

Michael @ 9.48:

You reckon ‘negativity’ not to be a ‘generalisation’ then, do you?

mrsgillianduffy @ 6.28:

‘Between Mel and the success of her moral crusade doesn’t lie the unfortunate roadblock of the British electorate’ but a fat wall crafted by those on the transfer payments propped up by a totally undemocratic voting system doped with politicians whose middle name’s hypocrisy.

also, you spotted it well, ID cards out, but only because there’s no money in the kitty. Just give’em few years, will you.

mrsgillianduffy

@Linda

You reckon without the mendacity of NuLab.

"If you vote Tory you'll freeze to death because they'll stop your winter fuel allowance, if you vote LibDem it's the same as voting Tory"

A sad fact but the people really don't want to know about the debt. Small wonder that NuLab were falling over themselves to scupper any deal with the LibDems! History repeats itself - Labour spend us to bankruptcy, Tories fix it eventually but are reviled for it, Labour say nasty Tories, vote for us because we care about you...

Frankly I'm just relieved to see the back of them, but they'll be back.

Our new Government are going to need all the support they can muster to get us through this next bit though. What a mess they've inherited.

Dave M

At least David Cameron has finally gotten the Tories back into office. I doubt they'd have gotten back in without the modernising Cameron has undertaken. The country had become too Leftist under Labour so the Tories were basically in the same boat as the Repubs in the U.S. - out-of-date. It was a reality Cameron had to grasp from the outset.
The difficulty for Cameron is he somehow has to win over the more traditional Conservatives who view him as way too liberal.
I do think Cameron has shown himself to be an outstanding politician thus far. He's gotten the Tories into office, has rid us all of a useless Labour Government and shown a lot of diplomacy by bringing in the Lib Dems. Between them they have 60 per cent of the vote. Sometimes you have to make decisions at the spur of the moment and then make sure any political union is going to be solid enough.

maddy

even the ape creatures of the Indus could understand that any debt needs to be repaid eventually. ..................................Debt does not have to be repaid these days, you can have the IMF, social unrest chaos etc. etc.

mark

"Accountable to whom? To local authorities, as the LibDems have always insisted? If so, that’s the end of the ‘free schools’ experiment"

No need o be so negative. Accountability would mean accountable through OFSTED for results.

Financial accountability through scrutiny of accounts via DFE and Audit Commission. This would be a positive step as Academies are exempt form any scrutiny of their expenditure and exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. Publicly funded bodies should not be unaccountable for how they spend our money

barackobama

Television and the internet made the election and the aftermath transparent. But dissimulation and dishonesty ruled. The deficit is the big issue, but none of the big three parties said how they would deal with it. How then could any rational voter decide which party to support?
The LibDems clearly weren't going to be in the position to form a majority government. But never said which party they would support. This made it impossible to vote on what the LibDems would actualy do in government. The Tories never said they would, if necessary, form a coalition with the LibDems, which also made it impossible to make an objective assessment of what they would do in government. Labour was unlikely to form a coalition with the LibDems, so they were slightly more honest. But since they were obviously going to lose, it didn't matter any way.
The basic problem is not morality or philosophy. It's about being honest. None of the big three parties were. The result will be a further intensification of the crisis of credibility for the new government similar to that which affects banks and big business due to the credit crunch.
Some parties and politicians have won. But practically everyone else have lost.

Jimmy

I.D. cards please but not for the other crowd.