The Not So Grand Coalition

Everyone seems to assume that the more-likely-than-not hung Parliament next time will make kingmakers of the Liberal Democrats, but I see no reason why this need be the case. On the contrary, this country is already being run by a coalition between the Tories and the Government (but not the Labour Party -- almost no Labour MP voted for Trident who was not either a Minister or a PPS).

For many years now, the Conservative Party has existed purely as a bogeyman with which to fighten Labour MPs and activists into line, except for when its votes were needed in order to bale out Blair and Brown (over Iraq, or top-up fees, or Trident) because the first tactic had not worked.

Thus has Britain been governed for a decade, so that a coalition between the politically indistinguishable Brown and Cameron would merely formalise an arrangement to which we all ought really to be more than used by now. Of course, being used to something is not at all the same as wishing to leave it in place.