Blue sun, orange sky... something is not right

[steepholm]

So, should I never vote Lib Dem again because they threw in their lot with the Tories? Or never vote Labour again because they threw their toys out of the pram and chose opposition rather than a progressive coalition?

I'm rapidly ceasing to care, and wishing I'd stuck to my first best instincts and voted Green.

(Either way, I don't really share the disgust that many seem to feel at the sight of the various minority parties - i.e. all of them - negotiating their way to some kind of settlement behind closed doors. What else were they supposed to do?)

Comments

[brownnicky.livejournal.com]

I would have loved a progressive alliance but I think it would have lacked legitimacy with the English tory voters and would have been seen as an alliance of losers, clinging to power by the Tory press. Most worryingly I don't think it did have the numbers to be effective. I suspect that those objecting also did not want all that blood on their hands and feared that when it all went tits up they would never get elected again.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I can see the point about the numbers, which were indeed somewhat precarious - but I don't buy the 'alliance of losers' idea. The fact is that everybody lost in this election: even the Tories got only a bit more than a third of the vote. So an alliance of losers was inevitable: it was simply a case of which losers.

[brownnicky.livejournal.com]

You're preaching to the converted here but I really don't think that was how it was generally perceived and I think MPs thinking about their long term future were very aware of that.

[lady-schrapnell.livejournal.com]

Yup, I agree about the general perception - and all the financial commentators talked about how the markets generally strengthened as soon as the Lib Dem Tory coalition was finalised, because it was seen as being much more stable than a Lib Lab one.