So, it's Official

[miss_s_b]

Cameron has announced full coalition. While we wait for the details of the agreement, I shall just list a few things that will and won't happen.

Things that will happen:

• The media will continue to speculate furiously, and will probably not read the agreement properly and will need to have their mistakes pointed out by bloggers.


• Tories shackled in government by a coalition with the Lib Dems will be orders of magnitude better than Tories in government unfettered and running amok.


• Nick Robinson will continue frotting Dave until Dave can stand it no more.


• We will lose members, supporters and voters who don't understand how we can coalesce with the Tories and put tribalism over making things work.


• The Murdochised press are not going to be fair to us - but we're used to that.

Things that will not happen:

• Lib Dems will not suddenly start being lovely to Tories; we will be keeping a close eye on what they do because it now affects us too.


• I am not not going to start paying attention to any Tory blogs that I am not already reading. Unreasonable people do not suddenly become reasonable just because our parties are in coalition.


• The world will not end just because that smug twat is occupying #10 Downing Street.

This is not ideal. Not by any means. But it's better than it could have been. Lets wait for the details to emerge, and then we can do what we Lib Dems do best: disect them and point out the flaws :D

Comments

[francescaelston.wordpress.com]

What is your take on the likelihood of this getting past the triple lock? I know that not much is known about the details of the agreement, but it seems that Osborne has been confirmed as Chancellor.

[miss_s_b]

I think it is fully dependent on the contents of the agreement.

[francescaelston.wordpress.com]

AKA no one thing would be a make-or-break factor?

[miss_s_b]

Well, if they've promised a constitutional convention with a view to installing STV in all elections, I would be grabbing it with both hands. I don't think they will have, though.

[gominokouhai]

Forgive me, please. What is `the triple lock'?

[lizw]

It is a Lib Dem policy which requires that, before signing any deal that would significantly compromise our independence, the leader must get the approval of one of the following:

*3/4 of each of the Parliamentary Party and Federal Executive
*2/3 of Federal Conference delegates (who are elected by members to represent their constituency parties)
*a simple majority of the whole membership.

Since this deal has the support of the Parliamentary Party and FE, it doesn't technically need the formal approval of the other bodies, but we have been told there will be a special consultative meeting of Federal Conference in Birmingham on Sunday anyway. This was apparently agreed by FE on Monday, before the coalition deal was finalised. No more details than that yet, but I am presuming FE's reasoning o this is that democratically and pragmatically, it would be best to meet any significant dissent head-on at the start. I am a Conference delegate for my constituency and will be attending.

[gominokouhai]

Ahah, thank you. I did know about that, but I didn't know that that's what it was called.