Yes, you too can

make a difference

While Britain held its breath during the uncertain days after the 2010 general election, Anthony Howard sought to help nudge matters along by sending this e-mail to LibDem MPs...

Subject: Coalition.

Dear LibDem MP:

Much has been made of "the national interest" since May 7, and certainly Nick Clegg made all the right noises initially.

More recently, however, it seems the Liberal Democrats have been playing both ends off against the middle, misguidedly attempting to extract narrow party advantage from the situation. After what we were assured by both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats was a constructive process, we then learnt the Liberal Democrats had simultaneously been exposing themselves to blandishments from Labour.

More for my own benefit than yours, this was the basic arithmetic of the general election:

Party

Seats

Change

Vote %

Conservative

306

+97

36.1

Labour

258

-91

29.0

Liberal Democrat

57

-5

23.0

 

Coalition A

Seats

Vote %

Conservative

306

36.1

Liberal Democrat

57

23.0

 

363

59.1

 

Coalition B

Seats

Vote %

Labour

258

29.0

Liberal Democrat

57

23.0

 

315

52.0

Insofar as the will of the electorate can be decoded, it's pretty obvious that considerably more would tolerate a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition than a Labour-Liberal Democrat one.

No doubt a large proportion of voters will never forgive the Liberal Democrats if they inflict continuation of Gordon Brown and his mendacious Labour regime in office. So - in your own interests as well as those of the nation - I urge you to get on with it and back Nick Clegg in concluding an alliance with David Cameron.

Sincerely

Anthony Howard

LibDem MPs did eventually see it my way...

However, it has since been suggested that during those surreal days after the May 6 general election, the Civil Service, Buckingham Palace, the Conservatives and LibDems conspired in considerable sleight of hand to dissuade Gordon Brown from stomping off to the Palace to resign before a Conservative-LibDem coalition was in the bag.

Gordon Brown announces general election

Grim with foreboding, they can put it off little longer. Alastair Darling and Peter Mandelson witness Gordon Brown at Number 10, announcing the 2010 general election (Photo: Crown copyright)

Failure to keep the unstable old brute in check might well have left Her Maj saddled with a full-blown constitutional crisis – as in “Who the hell is running this country?”

In the event, attaining a seamless transfer of power was a damn close-run thing, as this time-line for May 11-12 shows:

May 11, 2010

14:54: Anthony Howard sends “Dear LibDem MP” e-mail to all 57 of ‘em.

19.19: Gordon Brown says he is off to Buckingham Palace to resign, and will advise the Queen to invite the leader of the opposition to become prime minister.

19.33: Danny Alexander and the LibDem negotiating team exit the Cabinet Office, saying there is a "good atmosphere" and they are about to report to colleagues.

19.37: William Hague leaves the Cabinet Office, saying he is taking recommendations to Tory colleagues. Friendly "troops out" protesters shout: "Tory scum."

19.49: Brown’s audience with HMQ concludes.

19.53: Brown is greeted by supporters at Labour Party HQ, Victoria Street. Among them “morose” Ed Miliband, “glum” Douglas Alexander and Yvette Cooper who hugs Brown.

20.06: David Cameron and SamCam are driven to Buck House.

20.11: The Camerons arrive at the Palace.

20.41: The Camerons leave the Palace. (As they are there half an hour, we assume Dave got the job.)

20.44: Cameron and SamCam arrive in Downing Street. He says the Queen has asked him to form a government and he has accepted. He and Nick Clegg, both leaders who wish to set aside party considerations and work in the national interest, are forming a joint government.

20.50: Cameron kisses SamCam (“on the doorstep” as one report puts it) and goes inside Number 10, where he will take calls from Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, et al.

David and Samantha Cameron enter Number 10

The keys to the kingdom: Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell welcomes David Cameron and SamCam to Number 10 on May 11 (Photo: Crown copyright)

21.30: It emerges that as many as five cabinet posts will go to the LibDems as Cameron implements his pledge to full coalition government with the LibDems.

21.40: A bitter war of words breaks out between Labour and the LibDems, each blaming the other for failure to create a "progressive" coalition.

22.23: Cameron addresses Tory MPs in the House of Commons while Clegg speaks at a joint-meeting of LibDem MPs and the party's federal executive.

23.06: Downing Street confirms Clegg’s appointment as deputy prime minister.

23.12: Emerging coalition details include a commitment to stage the next general election on May 7, 2015.

May 12, 2010

00:13: After finally approving the coalition agreement, LibDem MPs emerge from their meeting. Asked for a comment, former LibDem leader Lord Paddy Ashdown says: "Hooray."

Others of us briefly contemplate the outcome had bolshie LibDem MPs scuppered the project, and sigh a huge sigh of relief that at long last Brown and his cronies have finally had their grips prised from the leaky lifeboat of state that is their sorry legacy.

00.38: Clegg faces a press conference, saying he wants not just a new government, but a new kind of government l

Cabinet meeting

Team picture: the new coalition's first Cabinet meeting at Number 10 on May 13 (Photo: Crown copyright)

Nick Clegg “delighted” by new fagging portfolio

Copyright © 2010 by Anthony Howard

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