After the election: Why a coalition is good for the UK…

In passing, last week’s editorial from the Economist (who had backed the Tories) on the nature of the UK’s new coalition government is worth noting: The parties will share responsibility for unpopular fiscal decisions, which should make them easier to take. The fact that, together, they have 59% of the vote will help persuade the electorate to accept painful cuts. Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg have struggled to marginalise their parties’ loonier fringes, and their alliance may assist them in …

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Michael White: “You pay your money and take your choice.”

At the Guardian’s Election Blog, Michael White offers a mea culpa and provides a sensible assessment of where we’re at as the dust settles over Downing St.  From the G’s Election Blog As I wrote in a piece yesterday, history points to the larger party, especially the predatory Tory party, swallowing up the minnow on its back. That’s where the bookies odds must point: to the Lib Dems being divided, even wrecked, by the strains of coalition in hard times. …

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Gordon Brown to resign as Labour leader

Gordon Brown has announced that he will resign as Labour leader and that formal talks will be held with the Liberal Democrats on forming the next UK government [Adds: Gordon Brown will remain in place to lead those talks].  The 13 Northern Ireland MPs who take their seats might yet have an important role to play.  BBC report here  And the Guardian is live-blogging events.  Adds  Do the math…  Detail From the BBC report Mr Brown said Britain had a “parliamentary …

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Remember the ‘Cyberlock’?

Given the intense coverage of the minutiae of the negotiations between Clegg and Cameron (one of the channels spent a lot of yesterday showing us aerial shots of Cleggy’s car so that the Kremlinologists amongst us could perhaps draw some significance from the way the radio aerial was waggling), why has no-one mentioned the Cyberlock yet? Twitter is largely silent on it and and none of the bleary-eyed commentators have mentioned it. It’s not factored in here either, but if …

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Quote of the Week…

The Conservatives have been facing the wrong way, like the guns at Singapore. This is what happens when an organisation comes to believe its own propaganda. Charles Clarke in The Spectator today. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty