Liberal democrats

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Clegg Gets Labour to Drive His Party to the Tories

From our UK edition

There's one thing that may be said of Nick Clegg's willingness to talk to Labour: it allowed Labour to show Liberal Democrat MPs that a deal with the Tories is the only show in town worth buying a ticket for. Once Labour MPs vowed to derail any plan to force through voting reform without a referendum and once John Reid, David Blunkett and Andy Burnham pointed out the absurdity of a "Loser's Alliance" that, however constitutionally permissable, would mock the actual, you know, result of the election then even the most sawdust-brained Liberal Democrat MP could appreciate that this bird wouldn't fly. That leaves a proper deal with the Tories the only sensible option - an outcome that I suspect was Clegg's preference all along.

James Forsyth

Lib-Con deal in the bag

From our UK edition

The Lib Dems are holding a meeting of both their MPs and the Federal Executive at 7.30pm. It is now widely expected that this meeting will approve a coalition deal with the Conservatives. Those who have taken the temperature of the Lib Dem Federal Executive say that approval is in the bag.

Martin Bright

The Labour Party Must Accept Defeat and Move On

From our UK edition

As I write, the Liberal Democrats and Tories are meeting in the Cabinet Office. The Labour Party should accept this is the end of any hope of a Rainbow Coalition. This election was lost and well lost. The Conservative achievement is substantial. There are now over a hundred extra Tory MPs in parliament and David Cameron has taken his party from being an unelectable basket case to the dominant political force in Westminster. It would be gracious at this stage to admit defeat.  The unwholesome sight of Labour grandees scrabbling around in search of  deal with the Lib Dems is an affront to democracy. The suggestion that Labour has the best interests of the nation at heart, when it has been so comprehensively rejected by the electorate is the party at its authoritarian worst.

Peter Hoskin

Burnham strikes a blow to the Lib-Lab coalition

From our UK edition

As James suggested, the mood is shifting against a Lib-Lab coalition this afternoon. And now the idea has been dealt its biggest blow so far: Andy Burnham has spoken out against it public. Taking the kind of deliberate step that suggests he may be up for the Labour leadership after all, the Health Secretary said: "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." And there's more. According to the irrepressible Paul Waugh, Burnham first made his discontent known in Labour's Cabinet meeting last night – where, according to Channel 4's Gary Gibbon, he was joined by Bob Ainsworth, Sadiq Khan and Jack Straw. So, then, have the rainbow coalition-ers given battle in vain?

James Forsyth

The obstacles to a Lib-Lab deal

From our UK edition

The main development of this morning has been Labour MPs throwing up obstacles to a Lib Lab deal. At the moment there are four main problems. First, David Blunkett and others arguing that Labour would be better off going into opposition and—this is implicit—letting the Tories and the Lib Dems make the cuts. One union fixer told me Labour couldn’t go into a coalition with a party committed to cuts to benefits and tax credits. Second, Jon Cruddas, a champion of party democracy, has demanded that the parliamentary party, the NEC and the unions be consulted on the terms of any deal. Third, there are lots of Labour MPs letting it be known that they’d vote against AV so the Lib Dems might not get the main thing they want from a coalition.

Peter Hoskin

Whatever happens, Clegg has sullied his credibility with the Tories

From our UK edition

Let's not get ahead of ourselves: some sort of deal between the Lib Dems and the Tories is still a distinct possibility, even if negotiations have been rocked by the events of yesterday. But whether it goes through or not, Clegg has seriously dented his credibility in Tory circles. Backbenchers who were warming to the idea of a formal Lib-Con coalition a few days ago – if only to scupper Labour's hopes – are now dead set against it. The very notion of Clegg as Home Secretary is becoming a collective anathema. The question now is whether – failing a Lib-Lab coalition – the Tory leadership is more inclined towards a confidence and supply deal than they were before.

David Blackburn

The Tory right strikes back

From our UK edition

Sam Coates reports that the Tory right want Cameron to renege on the commitment to a referendum on AV. You can see why they want to do this but it’s ill-advised. The Lib Dems have destroyed their credibility by indulging blatant self-interest and the Tories should avoid making a similar mistake. The need for unity is absolute. It’s time to put-up and shut-up in the national interest. Right now, that means reaching an accommodation, either in coalition or in a minority government with Lib Dem backing or abstention. If that requires a referendum on voting reform then so be it. Besides, facilitating a referendum is not to endorse reform. The Tories have everything to gain - power and the moral high-ground.

David Blackburn

Game on for a Lib-Con Coalition

From our UK edition

Gary Gibbon reports: 'Last night’s two-hour meeting of the Lib Dem MPs (with a sprinkling of peers) seems to have swung the party decisively behind a Lib-Con coalition deal. An announcement is widely expected now today.' It’s preferable to the alternative and as George Osborne made clear this morning the Tories can do nothing without Lib Dem support. There’s a suggestion that Clegg may have forced Cameron’s hand into further concessions with his sudden wooing of Labour, in which case he’s a very clever and brave shyster. I’ll believe it when it happens though. PS: A note of caution, as if one were needed. Clegg can't put a time on any deal. Incidently, there is no appetite for a Lib-Lab coalition among centre-left bloggers.

David Blackburn

This isn’t English

From our UK edition

‘The Tories are stuffed,’ a resigned Shadow Cabinet minister tells Gary Gibbon. Endorsing any such view is premature but, with Lib Dem elders counselling Clegg to join Labour, the most likely outcome is a coalition of the losers, albeit nice progressive ones. Ah, the irony of the New Politics – plus ca change and all that. Politics has descended into a grotesque spectacle of blackmail, and bungled devolution is to blame. As James reported last night, talks with the Tories ran aground on sands that are the territory of Holyrood and Scottish Liberals presented every obstacle possible.

Peter Hoskin

The Lib Dem big hitters pushing Clegg towards Labour

From our UK edition

Today's papers have the lowdown on the events of the past few days, and one thing is becoming increasingly clear: a Lib-Con deal faces not just the opposition of the Lib Dem base, but also some of the party's most influential figures.  In a Times account of a Lib Dem meeting yesterday, it's revealed that Sir Menzies Cambell "urged his successor not to bind the party into a irrevocable deal with the Tories."  Meanwhile, the Telegraph reports that "Vince Cable played a significant role in resisting an agreement [with the Tories]."  And Paddy Ashdown was across the airwaves this morning, explaining how a Lib-Lab coalition could provide "stability" and "legitimacy," against a "rabidly anti-European" Tory party.

Alex Massie

The Blundering Parties

From our UK edition

The biggest blunderer today was, I think, Nick Clegg but one can make a case arguing that each of the parties played their hand badly on Monday. Oh, sure, in one sense Labour must be enjoying this: Tories in a fury, Liberals suddenly interested again and, who knows, perhaps there's a faint glimmer of hope that something may yet arrive to rescue the party and keep it in office. But Labour's good mood reflects a short-term tactical stroke, not a strategic victory. Gordon might have wrong-footed the Tories today and damaged prospects for a Tory-Liberal arrangement but that's it. Labour's overall position had not, I suspect, improved greatly not least because, despite all the talk and the hype, it remains difficult to see quite how they really can push through a deal.

Monday

Alex Massie

A Liberal Red Herring

From our UK edition

James reports - and since it's James doing the reporting there's no reason to doubt him - that some of the strongest opposition to doing a deal with the Tories came from Scottish Lib Dem MPs. Apparently the poor lambs think they could be wiped out if they were tarred with the Tory brush. I assume that they are fretting about the Holyrood elections next year, not the next Westminster election (though of course, all the jockeying and manoevering must be judged in the light of its potential impact on that contest).

James Forsyth

The Scottish angle

From our UK edition

I am told that one of the Lib Dems groups most opposed to doing a deal with the Tories was its Scottish MPs. Their view was that Scotland had voted massively against the Tories and that any party seen as their representatives in Scotland would be massacred. This has set off chatter in Tory circles. There was already irritation that the party has a majority in England and Wales but was still having to compromise on issues that have been devolved to Scotland. But to not be able to make a coalition deal because of your unpopularity north of the border is to add insult to injury.

James Forsyth

The Tories work to seize the moral high ground

From our UK edition

Well, well today just keeps getting more and more extraordinary. The Tories have responded to the Lib Dems beginning formal negotiations with Labour by offering the Lib Dems a referendum on AV in exchange for a full coalition with Lib Dems in the Cabinet. The Tories stress that this is their final offer to the Lib Dems. Having spoken to several members of the shadow Cabinet, it appears that the offer is designed to allow the Tory party to seize the moral high ground. They believe that if the Lib Dems were to join with Labour to ram through a change in the voting system—Labour are offering the Lib Dems AV without a referendum and then a referendum on STV—then they would be discredited.

Peter Hoskin

How can the Lib Dems deal against the backdrop of a Labour leadership contest?

From our UK edition

And so it begins. With Brown's statment earlier, the Labour leadership contenders are already creeping out of of the Downing Street woodwork.  Paul Waugh tweets that David Miliband will announce his candidacy tonight.  The News of the World reports that Ed Balls has his campaign primed and ready to detonate.  And I'd be very surprised if there aren't more names about the enter the fray. All this activity is sending electic currents through the Westminster air – and it could end up burning Labour and the Lib Dems.  Both sides are are saying that they want to create a "strong" and "stable" government.  But how can Clegg & Co. see anything stable in this situation?

Fraser Nelson

Brown saves the worst till last

From our UK edition

We have just witnessed Gordon Brown’s last and most audacious confidence trick. “Gordon Brown to resign” says the television newsflash: but the story was the very opposite. Gordon Brown is staying on, saying – pretty much – that it will take an SAS operation to get him out of No.10 before the autumn. He declared a "constitutional duty" to stay until a new administration is formed "with majority support in the House of Commons". Untrue. You just need a majority to pass laws. One can govern with a parliamentary minority (see Alex Salmond in Edinburgh, and Harold Wilson in 1974). Cameron won the right to govern, when he last week secured a greater share of the vote than Blair in 2005 and two million more votes than Brown.

Peter Hoskin

Brown statement: now with added video

From our UK edition

And here's a transcript of the statement "We have a parliamentary and not presidential system in this country and as I said on Friday, with no party able to command a parliamentary majority arising from the general election, my constitutional duty as prime minister is to ensure that government continues while parties explore options for forming a new administration with majority support in the House of Commons. "The business of government has continued including concerted action in Europe today to avert the financial crisis in the Euro area. Alistair Darling the chancellor spent much of his time yesterday in the European finance ministers meeting in Brussels.

James Forsyth

The best possible news for the Tories

From our UK edition

Gordon Brown’s announcement that the Liberal Democrats have requested formal coalition talks is the best news that the Conservative party has had since the polls closed on Thursday. David Cameron can now say that his party has negotiated in good faith and that his broad, comprehensive, and open offer to the Lib Dems is on table and they can take it or leave it. If the Lib Dems do end up going into coalition with Labour they would completely discredit themselves and be slaughtered at any subsequent election, remember getting PR through the Lords would take at least a year. The markets would also not be impressed by a coalition that would not be able to take any tough decisions on the deficit.

Alex Massie

Clegg Decapitates Brown And a Nightmare Looms

From our UK edition

So Gordon will go and the Labour party will elect a new leader in time, he hopes, for the Labour party conference this autumn. The problem with a Lib-Lab coalition of course is that it won't have a majority. One can see how it could limp along but one cannot but think that while a single-party could soldier on as a majority matters would be much more problematic for a coalition minority. Nor does including the tiny parties strengthen matters much. And so, playing Salome, Clegg has got Gordon's head on a platter and we now have the extraordinary sight of the Lib Dems negotiating with both parties at the same time.