government

An amazing day in the life of British politics (well for the media at least). It seemed, to me, to be almost inevitable that we’d end up with a Con/Lib-Dem coalition government – I’d predicted this on facebook at 6am last Friday! Even though a Lab/Lib-Dem coalition was a possibility, this was also dependent on the support of the odd “other” parties, which was clearly going to be somewhat complicated. For the Lib-Dems, this is a hugely important time – an almost once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the party to make its mark (despite the multitude of its supporters who will be devastated by the prospect of them cosying up to the Tories). For the Conservatives, at least it means the end of a Labour government after 13 years; its supporters will be relieved, but also still very disappointed (and maybe very disillusioned?) after being unable to win an overall majority from what seemed, at one point, to be an impregnable position. Will the party be able to justify the “risk” of a coalition? Ironically, it seems to me that the winners in the long-term might well be the Labour Party – it gives them a chance to re-group under a new leader (as long as his name isn’t Ed Balls!).
What odds on another General Election within the next 12 months?