Whether Labour was going to imposed fixed term parliaments isn't relevant, though. The point is that they couldn't know that the incoming Tory government was going to call an election any sooner than that, and so were putting the country into Cameron's hands for potentially that long. (N reminded me that the next election may be on his 20th birthday!)
But really, a lot of this is guesswork on all sides. Could the Tories have led a minority government for more than a year? If they did call an early election, would they have got a majority? Would a Lab-Lib-Others coalition have held together? We'll never know - and anyone who thinks they do know is engaging in the rankest rodomontade.
As for Clegg setting himself up with the Tories - well, maybe he was, but again how can we be sure? It seems obvious (and quite defensible) that he would be talking to both the other parties, and playing them off against each other so as to get the best deal for his own. That's Negotiation 101. However, one side-effect is a general paranoia - evident last weekend on both the Tory and the Labour side.
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Date: 2010-05-13 10:15 am (UTC)But really, a lot of this is guesswork on all sides. Could the Tories have led a minority government for more than a year? If they did call an early election, would they have got a majority? Would a Lab-Lib-Others coalition have held together? We'll never know - and anyone who thinks they do know is engaging in the rankest rodomontade.
As for Clegg setting himself up with the Tories - well, maybe he was, but again how can we be sure? It seems obvious (and quite defensible) that he would be talking to both the other parties, and playing them off against each other so as to get the best deal for his own. That's Negotiation 101. However, one side-effect is a general paranoia - evident last weekend on both the Tory and the Labour side.