All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Days, perhaps only hours away from the expected announcement of a Con-Lib deal, the Tory party rank-and-file is getting increasingly restive. Many MPs and party activists do not feel that Team Cameron has been sufficiently attentive to them and their concerns. They look longingly at the Lib Dems, whose democratic set-up enables MPs and party
Many thanks for all those of you who have submitted hilarious examples of the most ludicrous, stomach-churning balls spoke during that bizarre election campaign. I know I promised to have a result by Friday morning but I was still drunk as a consequence of celebrating the result in Redditch, so many apologies. It was a
That’s right. There’s a genial irony here. The very same Scottish MPs whose election helped prevent the Conservatives from winning a majority will be the men – and they are mostly men – who will prevent electoral reform. Those English voters who think it unfair that the great phalanx of Labour MPs returned from these
No, not a libertarian government, but an alliance between liberal Tories and Orange Book Liberal Democrats is arguably the closest thing we can get to it. Peter Oborne has a splendid column in the Observer today which makes the key point: Indeed the prime minister and his supporters are wrong to argue today that the
Sky News are reporting that Brown is to hold a meeting with Cabinet ministers tonight. Lord Ashdown made it pretty clear on Andrew Marr this morning that there would be no ‘progressive coalition’ with a Labour party that has been comprehensively rejected at the polls, and which would rely on backroom deals with celtic nationalist parties prepared to sell their
The Sunday Times reports that the Cabinet is suggesting to Gordon Brown that he resign as Prime Minister, and that Labour goes into opposition against a weak Conservative government facing an unenviable economic task. The ‘Caretaker Prime Minister’ did not fly to Scotland to consider a re-shuffle, though that would have provided some light entertainment.
When the leadership reassuresConservatives that there’ll be no PR, they mean that Britain will not end up with a different voting system. When senior MPs tell the leadership that PR is a red-line, they mean a referendum on PR is unacceptable. As I say in the Mail on Sunday, those close to the leadership are
The people who need to get over it, of course, are the headbangers on the Tory right. It’s not a surprise that Simon Heffer and Lord Tebbit think Cameron a failure, nor that they believe that a set of policies more closely aligned to their own beliefs would have produced a Tory majority of, what,
We know that europe and perhaps electoral reform will be difficult for the Tories and Lib Dems to agree upon. So let’s talk about something else: tax. Cameron’s email to Tory members today strikes just the right tone and says most of the right things. It makes it clear that he thinks there’s a deal
As I say, FPTP is a defensible system and so is STV and so is AV: each brings something useful and each has its drawbacks. But why limit ourselves to these options? From a voters’ point of view I think there’s something to be said for adapting the French system. It’s a majoritarian system that
David Cameron never really had a Clause 4 moment. True, the Conservatives never believed anything so absurd as socialist economics. But the fact that he never had a genuine dust-up with his party made many voters think that he had rebranded but not reoriented them. In the end, it made many would-be supporters wary of
Talk of coalition between parties always reminds people that all political parties are internal coalitions. So all this speculation about Cabinet jobs for the Lib Dems, has set off some grumbling on the right of the Tory party. The right has long thought that shadow Cabinet is unbalanced. They point out that there are only
Ooh, a touch of drama just now, as Nick Clegg addressed the 1,000 or so protestors calling for voting reform in Smith Square. He said that the demonstration was “wonderful,” and got big cheers for saying that PR is “in the national interest”. But there were no hints, either way, about how the Lib-Con talks
For all the feverish political activity in Westiminster today – and beyond the occasional voting reform protest – there’s a strange, impermeable calm to the situation. Everything is going on behind closed doors, and everyone is remaining relatively tight-lipped. Signs are, we may have to wait a couple of days before any light breaks through
If there is one lesson to be drawn from the television debates, it is that people have grown tired of politicians slagging each other off. David Cameron promised an end to “yah-boo” politics, but the institution of parliament makes this near-impossible in practice. However, while parliament is out of action, there just might be the
Ben Brogan says that all the talk of the Tories offering three cabinet positions to the Liberal Democrats is premature. I dare say it is. Nevertheless this is a blog and speculation is good for blogging. I rather think we’d have a better* government if Nick Clegg was Home Secretary, David Laws put in charge
Well, Brown the Statesman was a short-lived incarnation. The BBC reports that Brown and Clegg exchanged ‘angry words’ yesterday evening and that Brown delivered a characteristic private political conversation: ‘a diatribe laced with threats’. Clegg and Brown simply cannot work together. This inability to put aside personal differences is far from magnanimous of both men,
Former Tory MP and current associate editor of Conservative Home, Paul Goodman, has analysed where Cameron and Clegg can accommodate one another. It’s a must-read and gives enough hope that Cameron and Clegg may ally to keep a thoroughly discredited Labour party from office. The Tories and Lib Dems share common ground on the bland
Gordon Brown has done two smart things today. The first was to make public what his offer to the Lib Dems was, meaning that every Lib Dem MP knew what it was before their party meeting tomorrow morning. This increases the pressure on the leadership not to do a deal with the Conservatives that does
The markets have spoken, and they’ve done so with menace. The FTSE 100 closed down 138 points, which, though not a complete disaster, is far from encouraging. You might argue that the multinationals that comprise the FTSE 100 are more affected by the fortunes of international markets and commerce. Whilst that’s true it must be
While both the Conservatives and LibDems support the idea of Swedish schools, a Lib-Con deal could kill the agenda stone dead. David Laws is proposing to allow local authorities to have the power to veto new schools – which would, in effect, mean no rollout. As we all know, this could strangle the Gove school
Here is what Spectator.co.uk made of the election Peter Hoskin wrote a comprehensive live-blog of the night’s events. Fraser Nelson hears rumours of coming Tory war. James Forsyth argues that the Tories were right to put the ball in Clegg’s court. Peter Hoskin records three statesmanlike performances and the odd sales pitch from Nick Clegg,
Tories are supposed to be pragmatists. That’s why they’re the traditional party of coalition in this country. On that front, it is interesting to see that John Major is suggesting that, to advance the cause of stability, Cameron should offer Clegg a number of cabinet seats. This seems sensible and, happily, would also improve the
Whither Scotland? Well, apart from Labour regaining the two seats it lost in by-elections not a single seat changed hands north of the border. Indeed there was a swing to Labour and I suspect that Brown and Jim Murphy won votes when they warned that a vote for anyone else was a de facto vote
Woah, I didn’t think Cameron would go that far. In his statement just now, the Tory leader started off by talking about minority government, as one might expect. But he soon skipped past that, and onto what sounded like a more formal coalition with the Lib Dems. He called it the Tories’ “Big Comprehensive Offer”.
OK, so the exit poll wasn’t bonkers after all. And Cleggmania evaporated like so many other summer romances. But it’s the Lib Dems, in many ways, not Labour who have cost Cameron his majority. Of the top fifteen Lib Dem held targets, the Tories seem to have won just five. Doubtless the Lib Dems were
Gordon Brown’s statement outside Number 10 just now was a strange mix of statesmanship and salesmanship. He began by trying to sound as reasonable as possible: claiming that he “understands” why Nick Clegg would like to meet with David Cameron first, and adding that he would happliy wait for them to finish their negotiations. He
There are rumours that Tory grandees are gathering to confront Cameron over his lacklustre campaign. The prospect of electoral reform, or another election amid autumnal austerity, has many reaching for the panic button in certain Tory circles. Speaking to the BBC, Tim Montgomerie has just added his voice to the criticism of the campaign
Let’s just consider three of today’s events: i) Gordon Brown has led his party to Michael Foot-era levels of support. ii) Peter Mandelson has very publicly knifed his boss on national televsion. And, iii) Nick Clegg has said that the Tories have the “first right” to form a government. Senior Labour figures are suggesting that
So Nick Clegg has finally spoken – and his words will be welcomed by the Tories. In an address outside of the Lib Dem HQ on Cowley St, he reiterated his previous argument that “whichever party gets the most votes and the most seats, without gaining a majority, has the first right to form a
The old political hands in the Labour Party at least knew that they had to talk down their prospects (beyond the usual nonsense about fighting to win). Lord Mandelson was right to fight this election as the underdog because this now looks in some ways like a victory. In fact this is a massive achievement
Will the 1922 Committee of Tory MPs elect an emergency chairman today? If so, the mission would be to warn Cameron off doing any deal with the LibDems. Most Conservatives will wake up today judging the Cameron campaign to have failed. In the view of many, he will have failed to honour his “change to
Labour’s victory in Erith and Thamesmead has just made a hung parliament mathematically certain. So there you go.
The Tories have come up short and even a deal with the DUP and Sinn Fein continuing not to take their seats would not give them a majority. So, we are now into proper hung parliament territory. So far, we haven’t heard from Cameron since his speech after being re-elected as MP for Witney. But