Libs to get 6 seats in conservative cabinet!
Yes I know it sounds mad. But I have been told that the deal with the Conservatives has been sealed. It will be announced with in the hour. Liberals have SIX seats in the cabinet . Really? I know that sounds bonkers .. but SO BONKERS , from such a good source, it just might be true! After all I saw The PM resign and the Tories offer the Libs a referendum on electoral reform yesterday! Anything could be true.
Update: Looks, in fact, like 2 or 3 in the Cabinet, and 3 or 4 junior ministers. Plus – Brown to resign this evening.
Update: Source incommincado right now. So I am winging it now. I am guessing the dotting i’s and crossing t’2 taking longer than anticipated. Mp’s and Federal exec meeting not expected til 2030. But interestingly Buckingham Palace was expecting a visit tonight – and may still be.
Update: Brown off to see queen.
Update: Negotiating meeting broken up with an indication that agreement reached. Both teams off to talk to their respective parties.
May 11th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
Are these seats bound in blue leather?
May 11th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
After the way Clegg shamelessly whored the LibDem body round the real players, then recieved such a decisive rejection from those Labour MPs with a shred of honour, you’re lucky that DC has not reconstructed the deal on the back of the LibDems sudden drop in value. On the strength of the Maths, a GE in Autumn or Spring is definitely on the cards. Don’t put too much faith in stories of knives out in the Tory ranks – they were,after all, the only major Party to gain seats.
On the credit side, if the LibDems enter a coalition and stick with it for a couple of years, They will have the opportunity to show the electorate that they are responsible when in national office. With the Labour Party likely to be unelectable in the foreseeable future, you will have a genuine chance to establish yourselves as the alternative party of government. Even as a poor person’s baby-eating Tory, I would genuinely like to see that happen.
May 11th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
three cabinets posts: Foreign or Home, Education or Health, and Deputy Chancellorship.
and the chance to see the back of the war party! How many Iraqi civilians have lost their lives? What if one of those was your partner, child, parent, friend? Hope Labour stew in hell for a generation for allowing that!
meanwhile, the Fair Votes campaign will be ever more important now – keep campaigning for a multiple choice referendum! Build that momentum and in the worst case, a great national ‘write-in’ for STV.
May 11th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
@Angela
Lib Dems got nothing. A parliamentary vote on a referendum on AV (which wont pass) wasn’t enough for the electoral damage the LDs will suffer for forming this coalition. We needed PR, and we all know there was no way that was going to happen.
But I don’t blame Clegg et al, we almost had no choice. Now we are going to have to take our licks, deal with fact that we are now protecting an agenda that is not our own and hope that voters at the next election, however soon that is, will forgive and forget and believe that voting for LD will eventually lead to a Liberal Democrat agenda in full in parliament.
Hang on, its going to be a bumpy ride.
May 11th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
@JohnM
After how we handled these negotiations do you think the GB public want anything to do with PR? I fear not.
May 11th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
@mpg
sorted in 5 days! Not bad!
May 11th, 2010 at 6:32 pm
grumpy old man – you really do live up to your name dont you x I think the Libs were on the cusp of getting this wrong – but the Liberals do run a uber-democratic party. If the MPs/Federal executive told Nick to explore all possibilities at their meeting I guess he had no option – and it is certainly an easier sell to get the vote passed by these folks if a deal with Labour was at least explored. I would not believe all you read abot “going behind Tory backs” ..from what I understand a handful of senior Tories DID know – they chose not to share with their party – perhaps rightly.
As for mpg …. this was a long time – not as long as you often see in Europe mind .. and not too much damage on the markets… and the marry in haste repent at leisure adage is true. It was looking like it was going to drag on this morning for another couple of days. That would have been too long.
The one thing I do know is that David Laws is very very bright and would have sought to strike a deal that was as clear as it could be and binding. That takes time.
May 11th, 2010 at 6:43 pm
Place your bets folks:
Nick – DPM & Home Sec
Vince – Sec to Treasurery (with City Minister’s brief?)
Laws – Education Sec (Gove said he was willing to step aside)
Huhne – Environment Sec?
Danny – Presumably some assistant role to Nick; without portfolio?
They might give Simon or Ming something to keep them happy but if they did it would be minor; they won’t move Liam Fox out of defense.
The big question will be whether they’ll put Ken Clarke as Chancellor rather than Osbourne. Cameron’s failure to get a majority and the failure of most of his ‘A list’ means he’s weakened and Osbourne owes his position to being Cameron’s creature.
May 11th, 2010 at 7:00 pm
Danny might get scotland ???- as i cant think of a suitable tory to do the role. I have it from my source that Nick HAS Deputy but there was no mention of home sec.
May 11th, 2010 at 7:12 pm
Paddy Ashdown for Norn Iron?
May 11th, 2010 at 7:22 pm
Wow! I did not think a deal would be done so quick. Brown’s resigning straight away then? It’ll be interesting to see who replaces him. Especially if the new leader is from the next generation, which will mean an almost total generational shift in leadership in Britain, with baby Boomers out and Generation Jones (the formerly “lost” generation between the Boomers and Xers) taking over in Parliament and party leadership (Cameron and Clegg also come from this generation). This has also been happening abroad and has promoted a lot of media interest, particularly in the U.S. Here’s an interesting piece from last week’s Independent about the significance this transition to Generation Jones:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/jonathan-pontell-cleggs-rise-is-the-sound-of-generation-jones-clearing-its-throat-1961191.html
Also, I thought this was a pretty decent overview about GenJones in the UK:
http://www.generationjones.org.uk/
Finally for some light, post-election relief see this clip about Generation Jones on Jonathan Ross:
http://www.youtube.com/user/GenerationJonesTV#p/a/u/1/5ZmO6Pl2E28
May 11th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
I hear that Brown received call to say that Lib/Con deal sealed at which point he knew it was over.
May 11th, 2010 at 7:45 pm
@Angela Harbutt,1832.
Dear Angela. I aim to please. I am serious about the LibDems establishing themselves in the public perception as descendants of the Liberal tradition rather than, “Me Too”, quasi-scientific socialists. Cobbett,Hume, the Frys, the Cadburys,the Methodists were the pioneers of state education, the concept of an NHS, penal reform, decent housing for the working man and much more that contributed to the benefit of humanity as a whole. Much of your hard Left came from the Labour Party when Blair managed the right shift that made them electable. They would be no loss to the LibDems. I would suggest that in rediscovering your roots, the LibDems could become electable as a party of government without the sort of compromise that has done for Labour in the forseeable future. I might even vote for such a party myself!
May 11th, 2010 at 7:47 pm
Grumpy old man…. And you do !!! thank you. You note I prefer to call us Liberals – even if Gordon Brown sees this as some derogatory term. I am proud to be liberal.
May 11th, 2010 at 10:03 pm
It is intresting to see a real Liberal like Simon Hughes being and sounding so unhappy about this unholy alliance. Shame on Clegg and his yes men.
May 11th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Dear Laura. Maybe you are mistaking fatigue for dislike, as Simon has been negotiating for about 4 days with little sleep, Certainly I noticed that when he started to give real information about the chasm between the LibDems and Labour Dimbleby shut him up very quickly. Al jabeeba has not yet caught up.
May 11th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
@ Grumpy Old Man – you really think Simon Hughes is happy with this? My mistakes or not I think not.
May 11th, 2010 at 10:17 pm
@Laura Daly: According to the BBC he was sounding happy…
I’m going to watch Yes Minister (the first episode, naturally!) now, then go to bed. I’ll find out the details tomorrow morning. If Nick Clegg can get his double three-quarters majority for the deal I suspect it’ll be as good as we could have hoped for.
May 11th, 2010 at 10:19 pm
@Niklas Smith … well if the Beeb said that it must be so.
May 11th, 2010 at 10:43 pm
@ Everyone
I’m interested in knowing what the immediate impact of this deal on the Lib Dem activist and voters. Is there work to do there, or will they be happy to have Liberal Democrats in positions of power, with Nick Clegg as DPM no less?
May 11th, 2010 at 11:11 pm
Congratulations to David Cameron who must surely do a better job than Gordon Brown.
This is a historic moment for the Lib Dems. In an ideal world we would be the government of choice but for that to happen in our lifetime, we need a fairer voting system and this will be the first step.
Nick Clegg has come from obscurity and irrelevance to the role of Deputy PM. What a wonderful achievement and one we could not have dreamed of a week ago.
Not only Nick but other Lib Dems will have important roles in this coalition government. Stop back-stabbing please and give them your support.
PS I worked on Vince Cable’s winning campaign to take Twickenham from the Tories in 1997 so there is a personal delight for me.