Will the tactical voting plea work?

There’s only one question which matters when it comes to Labour’s tactical voting plea: will it work?  You can certainly see Brown & Co’s thinking on this.  This is the election, after all, where the Lib Dems have become a viable option for a lot more people – so they might act as a speed bump for people rushing away from Labour and towards the Tories.  And anything which depresses the Tory vote gives Labour a greater chance of holding the most seats in the House, and of making some kind of post-election pact with Nick Clegg.

But as David said earlier, Labour’s osciallating stance towards the Lib Dems – lofty sneers one minute, sickly grins the next – is hardly convincing.  And neither is the timing.  If Labour had been urging tactical voting a few weeks ago, then it would have seemed just as cynical, but perhaps not quite so opportunistic as two days before the election.