Is the Tory press's war against the LibDems entering a cleverer, more subtle phase?

[non sociopath skin]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7628789/How-will-the-Lib-Dems-jump-Look-to-their-councils.html

This certainly isn't in the realm of fantasy. The LibDems and Conservatives have been following very much this agenda here in Northumberland where the LibDems certainly present themselves as a business-friendly, right-of-centre option.

And when I was on a local authority here a while back, the noises the LibDem leadership were making were not so very different from Cameron's attitude with Paxo last night.

Which is why, while I still see a LibDem/Labour pact as the least worst possibility after May 6th, a LibDem/Tory pact would not surprise me. And I can certainly see why a dog-whistle on this might benefit Cameron ....

The Skin

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. You might classify these Sunday Times' articles like that too

An interview with Clegg, and a commentary piece on it. Note the headline chosen for the interview:

Nick Clegg: ‘You can’t have Gordon Brown squatting in No 10 because of this clapped-out old system’

...
“It’s not for me to be kingmaker. There are 45m kingmakers out there — the voters. I will talk to whoever the electorate says is clearly in play. In the event that a party has more votes and more seats, but not a majority, it would be wrong not to acknowledge up front that that party has the right to seek to govern. I tie my hands in that sense,” he says.

This is the line he will desperately try to hold until polling day — making it sound like voters will have the final say in what he’s started calling, a bit cheesily, “a people’s election”. The problem, as he knows full well, is that a hung parliament is unlikely to produce a party with both the most seats and the largest share of the vote.

Because of the vagaries of the system, Labour could get fewer votes than the other two parties, but still have most seats. If that happens, Clegg will have the casting vote.

So I push, and push, and finally he helps a bit, by declaring that if Labour gets the smallest share of the vote of the three main parties and the most seats, he would not tolerate Brown remaining prime minister.
...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7107269.ece

And the accompanying piece: Nick Clegg: I will not prop up 'irrelevant' Brown

Note the writer of the first piece is not really accurate, when they say "a hung parliament is unlikely to produce a party with both the most seats and the largest share of the vote". In fact, the most likely outcome at the moment looks like the Tories getting the largest share of the vote and the largest number of seats - but not an overall majority (and an overall majority would make Clegg's thoughts irrelevant anyway). But one thing from this does seem to be a fairly definite ruling out of a formal coalition with Gordon Brown, if Labour come third in the share of the vote.

And while he's personalised it by talking about Brown, I'd say there's no decent case to be made for a coalition with Labour just as long as they drop Brown and make someone else leader.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

4. Do you wonder that Clegg could be making a moral case to be PM rather than Brown

if the LibDems gain the second most votes (and Labour third), but the third most seats?

[Anarcho-Socialist]

2. The LibDems can tear Brown to bits, and say make sceptical sounds about coalitions

in fact it's probably advisable they say all this, otherwise they'd leave themselves vulnerable to Clegg losing his "change" appeal by the Tory attack of "vote Clegg, get Brown."

But even if Labour come third in the vote and second in seats on May 7 then all bets are off, and any rhetoric in the campaign won't matter. If Clegg supplies confidence votes or joins a formal coalition with Labour, his pre-election rhetoric is vague enough to be easily spun away.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

3. In addition

there's nothing to be gained for the LibDems propping up a Tory government because it is fraught with dangers.

I doubt Cameron would place any priority on pushing through PR in the Commons because to do so would cause irreparable harm to the Tory party as a force in politics. Keeping the LibDems dangling with confidence votes could give Cameron enough time to reach the blessed 42% poll ratings he needs to dissolve Parliament and gain a majority under FPTP.

If Cameron does promise a referendum on PR, you will see the full weight of the Tory Party, the right-wing press, private finance capital, international banking, the City et al thrown behind a "no" vote. A "no" vote wouldn't be guaranteed but they'd have a good chance of getting one. But like I said above, the likely Tory strategy in a Hung Parliament is to keep the Lib Dems on board until Cameron can go it alone and call an election.

Throwing their lot in with the Tories also brings other dangers. To do so would weaken the PR movement within the Labour Party, seeing the LibDems as unreliable by their support for the more right-wing Tory party. A betrayal by the Tories would leave the LibDems trying to sway a sceptical Labour Party who might wish to try to gain power under FPTP, rather than deal with an opportunistic third party under a PR Hung Parliament.

The above isn't so implausible given that Labour will paint the LibDems as in hoc with the Tory Party when painful Tory cuts are implemented, damaging the LibDems' centre-left credentials.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

5. Paddy Ashdown pours cold water on Lib-Con alliance

Ashdown: Nick-Dave can't work

Tory hopes of a pact with the Lib Dems were dashed last night when Paddy Ashdown told The People: "Nick Clegg cannot work with David Cameron."

The former Lib Dem leader said: "We could not go into a coalition with the Tories, it wouldn't work."

Shadow business secretary Kenneth Clarke yesterday became the first senior Tory to openly suggest his party might negotiate with the Lib Dems.

(snip)

But Lord Ashdown, 69, said: "A coalition is not an option for us. The parties are too far apart."

http://www.people.co.uk/showbiz/showbiz/tm_headline=ashdown-nick-dave-can-t-work%26method=full%26objectid=22210068%26siteid=93463-name_page.html

This story is bizarrely posted in The People's showbiz section.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Because they think Nick Clegg is a reality TV star

The Star's trying to work out what's the correct phone number to vote for him ...