Not a bad result

It could be argued that an alliance with Labour would have been the moral thing to do, after all, Liberal Democrats have more in common with Labour. I would argue that the opposite is the case. Labour were widely seen as a failed government, their leader seen as a failed leader and alienated even within his own party. People might disagree about whether Nick Clegg or David Cameron won each of the debates, but I think there can be little doubt that Gordon Brown lost all three. If the Liberal Democrats had backed Labour, they would have been seen as propping up this failed administration, and blocking the popular desire for change. They would have been tarred with the same brush as Labour, their credibility would have been impaired, and they would have struggled on only for a very short time before being brought down. A Labour-Lib Dem coalition would have had the support of only 52 percent of the voters - a majority, but hardly a convincing one, and the mathematics of MP numbers was even worse. There would have had to be consistent support from most if not all of the minor parties.

As it is, we have a government which will implement some Conservative policies. This is reasonable given that the Conservatives did end up with the most support of any party. However the most extreme of the conservative plans have been scaled back or replaced by more reasonable alternatives. Furthermore the Tories seem to be being quite happy with a large number of Liberal Democrat proposals. While I regret that not every Liberal Democrat policy will be implemented, I can see that many, for instance those who see a like-for-like replacement of Trident as essential, will see this as a good thing.

Overall, I think it would be very hard to improve on the outcome we have finally arrived at.

Change the World.