Depressed Lefty red eye - The morning after the night before

argh front not from

will Labour be sensible enough to hold onto Gordon? I don't know. but they need to show a solid, united from in the face of a tory minority gov (if that's what happens).

out of interest, what happens if there is a minority tory gov and it's struggling, do the other parties get to call for a general election or would it be down to shiny dave to call it when he feels it's the best time for the tories?

Yes Beachcomber. The more I think about this LibCon deal, the more I think it won't happen (mind you I've been wrong about 100 times in the last 48 hours). Command and supply, maybe, but not a coalition.

Interesting re Sheffield Hallam.

Yes, Labour fragmentation and some sort of bitter party leader struggle would be disastrous at this stage. They need to hold on to Gordon, who will probably come across very well in opposition.

onebat - your scenario is too hideous to contemplate. I don't want to think about it.

Agree that Labour should hold onto GB.

Don't you think NC and DC must have had these conversations before now? The parties must have worked through every possible scenario - the LDs must have had an idea of what they would be prepared to compromise.

I found this comment very interesting from the LibDem Fed Exec site

"As a voter in Sheffield Hallam I think it crucial that Nick Clegg and the Lib ?Dem leadership team acknowledge that the Sheffield Hallam constituency was until quite recently a Lib-Dem/Conservative marginal. Being a Tory seat until 1997.

Nick will put his own seat at serious risk should he take the party into any coalition with the Conservative party. The vote for Nick, like that for his predecessor Richard Allan, has always included a significant and defining anti-Tory vote ? reflecting the distinctive socio economic features of our constituency.

Nick Clegg is in danger of alienating this support and thereby gifting his own parliamentary seat to the Tories in the next election ? unless of course Mr. Cameron is prepared to commit to electoral reform based on some form of proportional representation /single transferrable vote."

Good points everyone, especially Policywonk with cbeebies style explanation of PR .

Onebat - that is a worrying scenario.

I think Clegg has definitely gone to the Tories first as the only possibly way of not alienating the right wing electorate. He is playing it canny and he does have a very democratic and principled party behind him.

This is also make or break for the Tories, I think this is the beginning of the end for them. It may not happen right now but they must know that Things Have Changed. (Which is why Murdoch, et al will play very dirty).

I think this is going to end up being not just about parliament but also about all those who woo the Tories - they will do everything they can to stop their party being relegated to history.

Minority Tory government increasingly looking like a pretty good outcome (as long as they don't get a majority next time).

As Policywonk says the public may not be ready for a Lib/Lab coalition brought together to bring about electoral reform. Also Gordon's relative unpopularity may play a role here (much as I like and respect him).

Also we need Labour to be seen as very very solid with no infighting, etc (bit of a loose cannon this I fear, although Tories have the same concern).

I did laugh at Marina Hyde's description of Andrew Neil's boat as 'an Imbeciles Ball'.

Let's face it, a large proportion of the UK public is THICK and swallows the r-wing press whole (and Sky News). We will have to spend a f3ew years explaining PR to them in big print leaflets and CBeebies-style programming before we have a hope of winning a PR referendum

I was almost hoping that the Labour-third-in-vote-but-first-in-seats scenario came about, because then all the right-wing thickos would finally understand what was wrong with the system.

Andrew Sparrow's live blog is good for updates. I have to work this w/e - it's going to be hard to concentrate.

OMG. I slept till 11:30am. That is unheard of. Helped by the fact that my truly Darling Daughter was as quiet as a mouse and the lads are still in Italy.

Am rewarding DD with nice day out so won't be around much. Will read thread properly first.

I take it no change?

T4T
how are you, not seen you for ages. How's the puppy?daphne sends love and slobbers.

I think Ben Bradshaw knows something. As one of tghe biggest pro-PR labour people, he's been wheeled out. Ssuspect LDs will say no Tories who'll have a minority gov and the progressives will torment them from the sidelines under the leadership of Clegg and D Miliband. IF we did get a ref on PR it would have to be won. Murdoch put everything into a Tory majority and even he couldn't manage it.

PMSL at Teresa May description policywonk. LG I've been fretting about the same thing - you don't have to have votes on cuts - God people are going to be SO sorry they voted for them or didn't vote (a third of the population! Where were you?)

Liam Fox has been being an arse all over the place this morning. He is today's CPHQ Nominated Tory Bastard. I do so look forward to getting to know him better over the coming months

I was listening to Harman y'day and thinking that, for all her faults, I used to have an internal 'yay!' moment every time she popped up - a proper grown-up egalitarian feminist in a position of power. And now we'll have Teresa 'my jacket is fashioned from my own hair' May.

On the plus side, I look forward to people like Phil Woolas sinking back into well deserved obscurity.

morning lefties

'Only thing to worry about is a Tory minority which calls an election fairly soon and gets a majority in it by convincing people we need to stop all the shilly shallying around.'
That worries me too beachcomber

also obm's nightmare scenario

and what lenin said about the tories not needing agreement to get cuts through. they could do so much damage

lol NANNY!

Dd2 keeps asking me if we have a Prime Minster yet - she doesn't seem to be buying the constitutional arguement that we still have the old one..... I think we need another election sooner rather than later. At the moment we have three major parties who have all failed to win or lose convincingly. It's all a bit odd.

V interesting piece by James Naughtie on Today this morning - and pretty much what we've been saying.

OBM

I can see that happening so easily.

Right.

We need to all decide that if there is a referendum we will all contact our local "yes to PR" people and do what we can, dish out leaflets etc etc.

A HIDEOUS scenario was raised yesterday night when I was drunk discussing the possibilities.

Tories offer referendum (already squeaking about it on the Rightist blogs)
Clegg laps it up
Referendum is called
Murdoch puts everything he has into persuading people to vote NO
Tory govt revivified
Libs look like cunts
Death of reform as a credible issue for a generation

Haven't been through thread so apols if you've all been discussing this for the last day, but I was .