[Jill]

Waiting for Eastenders was like waiting for a delayed train. 7.30pm then 8.00pm then 8.30pm then 8.50pm then cancelled altogether but i don't mind because Brown is out and Cameron is in!

[Johnny 1989]

In all honesty Jill the news that Cameron is running the country doesn't leave me smiling & George Osborne as Chancellor Vince Cable would have been the one to "save" us from this recession, ah well it wasn't to be. Biggest surpise of the night was Clegg being announced as deputy, didn't expect that.

Brown did give a good leaving speech though, I'll be honest I never really disliked him, I never wanted to punch him the face when he spoke for example. Cameron however I could happily smack in the chops.

[Latina]

Exciting evening. And thanks to Twitter, at times quite an amusing one.

I'm not exactly jumping for joy at Cameron being our new PM, but I'm happy to wait and see what happens, and am rather looking forward to the first House of Commons debates.

What I'm not looking forward to is the likely prospect of Scotland turning yellow as a result of a perceived Lib Dem betrayal.

[kendra k]

This made me laugh:

Anyhow... I look forward to seeing how the next year or so shapes up. I'm not going to pretend that I'm happy about a Tory prime minister, but alas... I have no stake in the matter.

[Jill]

In all honesty Jill the news that Cameron is running the country doesn't leave me smiling & George Osborne as Chancellor Vince Cable would have been the one to "save" us from this recession, ah well it wasn't to be. Biggest surpise of the night was Clegg being announced as deputy, didn't expect that.

Brown did give a good leaving speech though, I'll be honest I never really disliked him, I never wanted to punch him the face when he spoke for example. Cameron however I could happily smack in the chops.

Fair enough - we're all entitled to our opinion. See what happens over the next couple of years.

[MK Chris]

Indeed, I'll be interested to see if your support for them continues.

Personally I reckon this is appropriate:

[DevilsDuck]

I think we are going to have 6-12 months of fighting and then a new election! this is not going to work. Centre right and left are not going to agree on much

[Boboff]

As Louis Walsh would say....... I like it, and I want you in the final.

Firstly you have to give it to the boys.

The bulk of the negtiations were conducted professionally and with respect.

Brown's resignation address confirmed that he is a genuine guy, with little personality but with our best interests at heart.

Cameron and Clegg were business like, and seemed to be singing from the same sheet.

Cameron was not at all triumphalistic.

Vince Cable as private secretary / banking etc should provide some balance to cost cutting.


Lets give them all a chance, I for one never really thought the Liberals would have any impact on or country, except in opposition, so from my bias this is a great position.

The main threat I percieve is not the leaders and the policy and practice of a new government, the main threat is the back benchers on both sides mucking this up. There are too many views to accomodate, party discipline threfore is absolutley key to ensuring a firm, well run govenrment, devoid of smug, self serving, bitching, infighting which is not in the Public interest.

Look at it this way.....What if May 2014 sees a joint ticket on a Lib Con Coalition election, wow you are then talking about an elected "party" getting maybe 60% of the vote, and doing a god job, what more in all honesty could we ask for, Utopia? maybe, but it might be close to it.

Ok we have a Tory PM, but a young one who doesn's seem to be especially ecotistical, and the pervading sentiment left by Gordon Brown, that the number one Job is as a family man, if our leaders can take that thought to work with them in the morning then maybe, just maybe, we could have the Liberal Dream of a prosperous, fair for all, common sense, of the people government we can all feel proud of.

[Yudster]

Yet again, I agree with Boboff. Having watched all the goings on, I can't help but have a little glimmer of something positive. The Lib Dem influence might just go some way to deflecting the more plutocratic of the Tory inclinations.

Cameron's speech though - wow, do you think someone ought to tell him that the Blue party is the Conservatives, because it could have come straight out of the New Labour Handbook of 13 years ago. Just goes to show, you have to be careful what you take at face value with these people. However the early glimpses of how the "proper" coalition will be constructed do show a genuine committment to that coalition I think, so who knows, perhaps we really are at the dawn of a new era in politics? The leadership certainly seems to want it badly - the MPs and the rank and file are where the problems might be.

Looking back though, coalitions involving the Liberal party have historically been disastrous for the Liberals themselves. Last time it resulted in the Liberal party being completely destroyed, split into three separate parties, and it spelled the beginning of their years of complete obscurity. That's a big trend to buck, but maybe now's the time.

I'm looking forward to seeing more details of how the cabinet is going to look.

[DevilsDuck]

I hate politics!

[Yudster]

Really? I absolutely love it. How can you not be fascinated by all this?

[MK Chris]

I must admit, I'm impressed that the Tories have agreed to the £10,000 tax threshold. I still don't think AV is enough for electoral reform though.

[AndyJ]

Really? I absolutely love it. How can you not be fascinated by all this?

Because it's so confusing and so very boring.

[MK Chris]

But it affects each and every one of us.

I am prepared to give this coalition the benefit of the doubt... we shall see.

I wonder who'll get the Labour leadership - is it a foregone conclusion that Miliband the elder will get it? Because I think I prefer Ed personally. Really though, they're in a pretty strong position of opposition.

[AndyJ]

I agree that is affects each of us, but there is nothing we can do about any of it. We can only vote, which we have done, and thats all. What decisions they make we can't change. This is why I don't really follow it.

[DevilsDuck]

Really? I absolutely love it. How can you not be fascinated by all this?

I love it as well, but I hate it at the same time.

It's so frustrating. The thing that is really annoying me (other than DCs face) is that I can't see this coalition dragging us out of the hole we are in.

The way the conservatives have got us out of debt before is selling off public sectors and cutting back.....but there isn't much to sell now, Labour used up the gold reserves bailing out the banks and we can't cut back that much more

Should I start being positive yet?

[MK Chris]

[Munki Bhoy]

Could be interesting. On the one hand, we all need this to work to prove that coalition governments DO work and that a fairer voting system is in everyone's best interest. On the other hand, you've got the Tories in there who really don't want that fairer voting system. But then if this fails, they'll get booted out at the next election and a lot of the disgruntled Labour folk who turned to Lib Dems will probably have turned back again already!

I'm already hearing that Labour purposely sabotaged their negotiations with the Lib Dems. They had to look like they wanted to try and form a coalition, but truth of the matter is the coming months are going to be absolutely awful decisions to make and they'd rather be in opposition and watch the others fall on the sword. To be fair, Labour have pretty much taken the blame for the current global economy which I never quite understood since it was American banks that started it. Yes, they could have had more reign over the British ones, but then there's not a lot they could have done about Lehmann Brothers, Fanny Mae, Freddie Mac etc. So Labour know that whoever is in government gets the blame whether it's actually their fault or not. If the ConDems need to make big cuts and increase taxes to save the country they'll still be seen as making cuts and increasing taxes which screws the voters. This one is going to hurt.

Not to mention the fact that if the coalition fails just because they can't get on, supporters of both parties will turn away from them and look for the alternative - which is now Labour. They're oddly in a position of strength.

Say what you want about this, but it makes for brilliant entertainment. Shame it's the future of the country that's at stake.

[MK Chris]

The thing with Labour though, is they need to drop the whole ID cards idea and get much better on civil liberties.

[DevilsDuck]

I think Gordon resigning before Lib and Cons had agreed everything was a cunning move by Labour.

It forced them into this coalition before the Lib party had discussed everything which means the back benchers are going to squable like mad!

[Yudster]

The thing with Labour though, is they need to drop the whole ID cards idea and get much better on civil liberties.

These things were never exactly prioritised,and the last government had already acknowledged that the vast majority of the repressive civil liberties legislation they passed (and there was a LOT of it) has either not been implemented, or not been enforced - and they were backtracking on compulsory ID cards too.

The Governor of the Bank of England says he is very happy that the plans agreed by the ConDem government are as good as it can get, and will reduce the deficit as quickly as it can be reduced. Which will still take a long, painful time I imagine, but that would have been the case whatever flavour government we got.

[AndyJ]

Good to see people are in full support of the new PM:

http://waugh.standard.co.uk/2010/05/doom-and-gloom.html

[MK Chris]

I will be interested to see how all the witty right-wing commentators come up with their "funny" put-downs now. "It's all because of the previous NuLiBore government" and such will only wash for a certain amount of time.

[Munki Bhoy]

I've read through the coalition deal on the BBC web site - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/ ... 677933.stm or for the lazy... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/ ... 677088.stm

Don't really see much I disagree with to be honest. I mean, I don't agree with absolutely everything but I can see where they're going with most of it and it seems to make sense. I can also see how the Tories will squirm out of the political reform referendum, but then that might back fire on them anyway.

Still, it all seems fairly decent. Lets see them put it into place now.

[Johnny 1989]

In all honesty Jill the news that Cameron is running the country doesn't leave me smiling & George Osborne as Chancellor Vince Cable would have been the one to "save" us from this recession, ah well it wasn't to be. Biggest surpise of the night was Clegg being announced as deputy, didn't expect that.

Brown did give a good leaving speech though, I'll be honest I never really disliked him, I never wanted to punch him the face when he spoke for example. Cameron however I could happily smack in the chops.

Fair enough - we're all entitled to our opinion. See what happens over the next couple of years.

Of course Jill, apologies if I seemed a bit off there, I just remember as a child in the late 80's/early 90's both my parents worked & both really struggled under the Tories, however I am (somewhat grudgingly) going to give Cleggron a go & see how they get on.