I’m glad I went away for the weekend, it was bad enough being glued to the news channels yesterday getting nothing done, but if I’d stayed here over the weekend it would be a whole weekend lost. As it was a good time was had, good weather, two hills climbed, golf, curries, wine and good company.

So what to make of the events and main players?

Gordon Brown

Its a bit like speaking ill of the dead so I’ll leave that to Obo, but be warned his language is somewhat colourful and not for the faint-hearted. My view of the man can be summed up by my first thought when I saw him bring his kids out for the press to see, something which he has denied in the past, was that he was trying to grab tomorrow’s [today's] headlines. I think its fair to say that I won’t be attending the funeral.

Nick Clegg

He’s played a blinder. If we are to believe the rumours he is a liberal and couldn’t stand Gordon Brown, although the bulk of his party are socialists who for some reason known only to them didn’t join the Labour Party. Some would have thought that by losing seats he would lose his authority, but they don’t understand LibDem victimhood philosophy. For them the ideal result would have been no seats and 30% of the vote, which would have given them the opportunity to beat their breasts and preach PR from the highest pulpits in the land in the most righteous of manners.

He always said that the party that got the highest number of votes or seats (he never really clarified what he would do if that had been split) would get first chance in coalition talks and he was true to his word. Given that the opinions polls were forecasting this for some time I wonder if knew he was setting his own party up for a Tory coalition even then?

Some seem to think he was being duplicitous when he want off to speak to Labour but, as Nick Drew pointed out on Capitalists @ Work, this is known as shopping the deal and something he had to do because : 1. to make sure he was getting the best deal possible from the Tories and that nothing had been left on the table; and 2. To show to his own left wing that talks of an Anybody But Cameron coalition, otherwise known as a coalition of the losers, was never going to work. That he got unanimous support from his MPs and Federal Executive shows he played them well.

David Cameron

I can’t decide if his desire for power has seen him bend over too far or if he’s really got what he wanted as well. Despite not really liking him I suspect he’s been very clever and it is the latter case and that he’s playing a long game with his own right wing and the whole political landscape. I’ll discuss that point in a future post, I want to confine this one to recent events not idle speculation about the future.

He appears to have been a good leader team and knew how to play the negotiating game well and didn’t get involved in the detail and kept out of the way. This meant that the LibDems could be sure that he trusted his negotiating team (Nick Clegg did the same so they’ve read the same book). That he or his negotiating team didn’t throw a hissy fit when Nick Clegg went off to talk to Labour shows that they expected this to happen and had factored this in to their negotiation strategy, which they showed by offering to give up one of their own red lines with an offer of some PR as soon as the LibDem/Labour talks were announced.

Has he given too many Cabinet and Ministerial places away? He certainly made the deal hard for the LibDems to reject as they would have looked stupid if they walked away from something that their pet desire, PR, is always likely to throw up. Even the most anti Tory LibDem supporter must have realised that if they turned it down the public would take them for bigger fools than they thought and that would have been the end of any LibDem chances for many a generation. So if Cameron’s aim was to lock them in with a deal they couldn’t refuse, job done. But what of his own MPs who are now missing out on the places given to LibDems? I suspect he’s taken the view that that’s tomorrow’s problem.

Labour Party

They appeared to be genuinely shocked that they had been let down by the people, how could anyone vote against “fairness” and the people weren’t dancing in the streets having re-elected them like they were in 1997. Seeing Mandelson on the TV spinning that because the Tories didn’t get an overall victory was a bigger defeat than them losing nearly 100 seats was insulting everyone’s intelligence. It has been widely touted for years that the swing needed for an outright Tory victory was probably too be great to overcome in a single election despite what some opinion polls claimed.

Then to hear them trying to justify the rainbow coalition plumbed the depths of even their fetid morality. Then to see Ben Bradshaw grinning on TV like a Cheshire cat on speed claiming that a Labour/LibDem partnership had legitimacy because it would contain over 50% of the popular vote (52%) somehow justified a coalition of the losers and gave them authority was, I suspect, the final straw for many wiser heads in their own party given that a Con/Lib alliance had 63% of the popular vote.

That some wiser heads in the Labour Party (yes there were some) did eventually appear and drive a stake in to the heart of the losers coalition, and straight through into Gordon’s heart as well,  did at least add some dignity to their eventual demise. The key point in this appeared to be when Tom Harris went on TV talking sense that the coalition would never work,  which brought a few more out in to the open. I wish him well for the country needs opposition MPs who have some dignity and integrity, however I suspect he and like minded people will be swamped by the tribalists, schemers and bullies who have taken over the Labour party.

LibDems

Again they appeared genuinely shocked, but this time because their hopes were so high. I suppose they deserved it for believing the opinion polls but then they’ve always had the appearance of being wishful thinkers.

Maybe the shock of losing seats, although as I said above they consoled themselves with a higher vote share, gave Nick Clegg a clear run because there was little dissent and what there was appeared to have the “anyone been raped and speak English” ring to it. I think it will be a while before we get a true picture of what the grass roots are thinking but there are already mutterings of defections to Labour, which I suspect is wishful thinking from Labour. Why would you work hard for a party to get some form of representation in government and then fuck off because it was the wrong sort of government? On second thoughts the LibDems have always had some weirdo’s and maybe they prefer righteous opposition to the discipline of power? Interestingly the Libertarian Party has some enquires for LibDems, especially when the Labour talks started.

Conservative Party

There is some gnashing of teeth by the right about doing business with the LibDems and giving way on a PR referendum. Some of them appear to think that a minority government would have served them well, which just goes to show they really don’t understand what has happened. If they’d got their way and forced Cameron to pull of talks and go it alone I suspect it would take long than 13 years to get back in to office. So overall they have held their discipline well.

The Progressive Commentariat

Those who believed that there would be an automatic alignment of all left of centre parties in the interests of Anybody But Cameron and fuck the national mood are the biggest losers, and yes I mean you, Polly, and the rest of your Guardian no hopers. To expect Scots Labour MPs and Scottish Nationalists to lie down together like cuddly lambs, for example, showed that you really are so far up your own arses that not a photon of light cannot penetrate you blinkered thinking.

Libertarian Party

A 1000 miles walk starts with a small step. We entered late and are quite pleased with the reactions we got on the doorstep. Many of us are not from political activist backgrounds and we’ve learned a lot and are under no illusion we have a difficult task -  but 20 years ago (or even 20 weeks ago) would have given the LidDems a prayer of appointing the Deputy PM and 4 other cabinet posts?

Right, that was then, now to the future.