Leadership and Generalship David Cameron has shown outstanding leadership qualities in the last few days. He has put together not a fudge and dodge government which this blog feared, but a real full blown coalition of war-time proportions reflecting a popular vote of 17.5 million and nearly 60%. This is a true majority government. Moreover […]
Labour Exit Whatever the outcome of the talks, this Blog now takes a position. A deal with Labour cannot work. The party is in some disarray, speaking with many voices, not even united in the desire to stay on. There appears to have been no attempt to consult the MP’s or any part of the party’s […]
Talks Latest It is now obvious that the nature of the Labour party as presently constituted in the Commons after its defeat makes it impossible to deliver a deal with the Lib Dems which would work. Too many want to keep first past the post. More important the old hands know that the biggest bucket […]
A way Ahead This blog has kept neutral throughout this election campaign. Most of its analysis has been born out by events. This is how things now stand. Arithmetically in terms of seats a Con/Lib coalition looks sound and has a good majority, so, the argument goes, it would be stable and would offer strong government. […]
Euro Relief The support package put together by the Euro finance ministers has brought cheer to the markets. There will be no immediate defaults. However certain problems remain to be solved. Not least is a better degree of economic control over Euro countries which must have authority, even if it falls short of a Federal […]
Calculating Backwards The plain speaking Thatcherite and champion of the Tory Right, Lord Tebbit is reported to have launched a blistering attack on his party leader, David Cameron, urging him to go it alone with a minority government on the basis that 77% of the voters ‘rejected’ Clegg and his party. Using the same arithmetic 64% […]
Fair Votes There was a noisy demonstration of support for Nick Clegg outside the Lib Dem HQ today. When the real talks begin tomorrow it would be worthwhile for the Tories to remember that while they have 5.5 times more seats than the Lib Dems, they only have 1.5 times more votes. Considering the money […]
The Electoral Reality There are two ways of looking at this, but first let us return for one moment to the campaigns. Labour’s was a success. The campaign itself was often off track, but at no stage was it off message. That message was simple. We are on your side, we know what we are […]
So who won? If you take a simple view, it is Cameron. But it is not simple. The irony of it all is that although the LibDems failed altogether to capitalise as much as polls suggested they would post the first TV debate and their figures were the most truly unexpected and disappointing of all, […]
Confusion Neither the commentators nor the politicians have slept, nobody knows what is going to happen, some people, a good many, could not even vote. That is very bad. On top of this, the outcome thus far has one very big surprise; the failure of the Liberal Democrat campaign to make the headway thought certain. It is too early […]