Foreign Perspectives

At last it has gotten through to Brown that he actually lost the election so he’s now trying to pull out some kind of victory for Labour out of this defeat through his resignation.

The first difference that it seems to have made is that it has opened the door for negotiations with the Liberals. However, the problem is that even if they agreed between them to form a coalition, it wouldn’t be in the majority and therefore is unlikely to be a route to the stable government that we all need at this point. To get that critical majority, there would need to be a number of deals with yet more parties, each with their own agendas. In practical terms, it would be a rather unstable government with so many side-deals needing to be made. On the whole, it seems clear that any parties taking part could easily find themselves totally discredited when it all falls apart.

However, despite all that, the biggest difference it has made is that the ethical position of the Liberal Democrats is brought into question as they now come across as being a party that is simply negotiating for whatever they can get for themselves rather than in the national interest. At the off, Nick Clegg certainly came across as someone who genuinely would act in the national interest. He needs to regain that position.

Will this lame duck Labour government continue to try and hang on regardless? Probably: they’re that deluded.