Looks like prospects of a Lib-Lab coalition have evaporated and the Tory-Lib partnership is a done deal.
It seems to me that this is probably a reasonable outcome for most protagonists in this momentous drama.
For David Cameron, it’s a huge relief. If a Labour-Lib Dem coalition had been cobbled together a furious Conservative party notorious for being ruthless in getting rid of leaders would have replaced the man at the top. And Cameron is on the liberal wing of the Tory party so probably isn’t ideologically as far apart from the likes of Clegg and Cable – both Orange Book Lib Dems, meaning they advocate market-based solutions to social problems – as many assume.
For the Liberals, it’s potentially perilious getting into bed with a party tasked with taking an axe to public spending. But they're on the cusp of power for the first time since 1912, no mean feat.
As supporters of PR, the Lib Dems will benefit from the perception that they are good at compromise
Lib Dems will feel excitement and apprehension in equal amounts right now, but as supporters of PR, they will benefit from the perception that they are good at compromise. Parliaments formed through PR are often led by parties with divergent views, so activists on the left of the party should hold their nose.
Labour, meanwhile, can now retreat to lick their wounds. They’ve lost power after 13 years, but as John Reid sagely pointed out, mounting a coup to retain power now could obliterate them in the long run.
A Lib-Lab pact would have relied on votes from the SNP and Plaid Cymru, who may have extracted concessions over cuts in Scotland and Wales, thereby enraging English voters. So unstable would the coalition be that I could envisage it collapsing in six months.
A tired electorate also disgusted by Labour’s determination to hold onto power and the Lib Dem’s determination to get their way on PR to the exclusion of all other considerations, would then punish the two progressive parties with a Tory landslide, perhaps keeping Labour out of power for a generation and reducing the Lib Dems to a rump.
A minority Tory Administration meanwhile would have been walking against a headwind on a daily basis and quickly become exhausted from building agreement from other parties on every single Commons vote.
Then there’s the business community, which would unanimously declare itself satisfied with a resolution to the impasse. According to a poll by the Federation of Small Businesses, almost half of small-business owners believe a Tory-led administration was best equipped to deal with the most pressing issue: the budget deficit.
