Foreign Perspectives

It was a little wobbly this morning but at last Labour did the right thing and abandoned any thoughts of attempting to prolong their lame duck government. Most surprising was last night when John Reid came out and said directly that it simply wouldn’t be right for the Labour party to even think of some cobbled together coalition. It was into this morning though before the various spin doctors admitted that withdrawal was the only democratic thing to do.

This evening the new Conservative led government is in place or at least the Prime Minister is as he has yet to appoint his Ministers. That has the effect that he’s in full charge of the country this evening, albeit will a full complement of civil servants to keep a handle on it all. Changes in government are the only time when the UK is effectively run presidential style and it’s generally for a very brief period.

One final issue not yet resolved is the approval of the coalition by the Liberal Democrats which should happen later this evening all being well. Should all not be well and they reject it, we still have a government but a minority one.

At the changeover there were all the usual thank you gestures from both Brown and David Cameron. Not that anyone really believes them, of course.