He's resigned [URL]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8672859.stm[/URL]
Giving us a government made up of what - 5 or 6 different parties - & billions more in debt thanks to the bribes they'll have to pay to the Scottish, Welsh & Irish parties. Wonderful.
I can't believe you are daft enough to think it's a good thing. At least LD and Tories balance each other somewhat and after welching on his pre-election commitments Clegg and the LD's in a post austerity election will be finished.
I don't think there's any question as to where nationalist support would go - SNP and Plaid would never vote with the Tories. They may not always vote with Labour, either - but are more likely to voluntarily support a Lib-Lab government than a mostly Tory government.
That's irrelevant - the Tories wouldn't need them, Labour do. And they ain't gonna get them without paying.
Hmmm, I don't know about that. There are enough Lib-Dems out there who totally oppose the idea of a Lib-Con pact to make things a tad tricky if the minority parties vote against the government - it would only need 20-ish Lib-Dems to go against the pact to swing a vote against them.
Yebbut its the only game in town. A lib/lab coalition does not have enough seats to form a stable government. Unless, of course, you want the Welsh nationalists etc having a veto on everything.
I'm talking about what's needed to form a majority government, not what's needed to get specific legislation through.
Not much point in having a majority government if your majority never comes into effect due to half your supposed allies voting against you.
Well I guess you don't mind the thought of a brief alliance followed by 12 years in the cold. Better than that. Conservatives and Labour. With Brown gone shirly they can reach agreement. Being so similar post Thatcher.
From your link - "The nationalist parties would, of course, extract financial and political concessions from Westminster". The figures discussed on the news on Friday were in the billions.
Which would force a new election. It's not as if the LibDems agree with Labour on many things anyway, & it'd take far fewer of them to vote against to stop things going through.
If Clegg picks Labour, I'd love to see Brown shaft him & form a coalition with the Tories. Don't think I'd stop laughing for weeks.
Maybe. The tories have just matched Labour's bid by offering a referendum on AV. Unfortunately AV is as big a sack of shit as FPTP, but it's a start.
Well of course they did. It gives Lab the chance to up the ante with STV or AV+. I have a sneaking suspicion that things are playing out as Clegg envisioned. So far, it's gone according to my probable outcome.
What I don't quite understand is why people think a coalition and/or PR is such a bad thing. It works for the Germans among others. -- Malc Rusted and ropy. Dog-eared old copy. Vintage and classic, or just plain Jurassic: all words to describe me.
Clegg's words at the start about giving the tories the chance to try to form a government were very carefully chosen. I bet he's a proper **** to play at poker.
