The last twenty-four hours have been great fun. Since Gordon Brown detonated his I.E.D. yesterday afternoon, the Westminster village has been a hive of intrigue and backbiting. But as the Brits sit football jersey down to their tea, the odds have reverted to a Conservative-Liberal Democrat deal that would usher David Cameron into office as the leader of a Tory-Liberal coalition. According to unconfirmed reports, the movers are already entering the back door of Downing Street.
As a lifelong Labour supporter, I don’t like one bit the idea of the Tories returning to power, but, after mulling things over, I have reluctantly concluded that a Conservative-Liberal coalition would be preferable to nba jerseys the alternative: a grand “Progressive Coalition” of the sort that Brown proposed. Such an idea, although attractive on the surface, would immediately run into severe practical problems, and I don’t think it could be sustained for more than a few months. Most likely, it would lead to another election this fall, at which Labour (and the Lib Dems) could end up suffering huge losses.
Many people in the Labour Party recognize this danger, among them David Blunkett, a former home secretary who today came out against a Lib-Lab deal, writing in the Guardian: “This would result, almost inevitably, in a massive defeat for Labour at the hands of an electorate who would blame us for flouting the will of the substantial minority.” Andy Burnham, the schools minister and one of Labour’s rising stars, is another of soccer jerseys the Labour rebels who helped scupper a Lib-Lab deal: “I think we have got to respect the results of the general election and we can’t get away from the fact that Labour didn’t win,” he said today.
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