So the bargaining starts and no one knows the outcome. Both sides are unhappy about any deal being made and are demanding purity of action and thought - both forgetting the result of the election. So will there be some sort of deal? Who knows but my feelings is yes. The initial offer was just that and there will now be negotiations as to how to take this forward. The slight complication is the Lib Dem party rules and structures and this could be their great undoing if they are not careful. At the moment they have goodwill on their side but should the party start to bulk at some of the things that have to be done then it will be disastrous for them. The key element of PR is that parties negotiate to form a government - should the Lib Dem party and MPs reject this then it will be the end of PR for a generation and we will return to more tribal politics of which the Lib Dems will have no part. No pressure then.
The good thing is that they have quite a lot of experience of this process from Scotland and Wales so I would hope that some type of deal can be stomached with the Conservatives. There is the option of trying to do a deal with Labour but I just cannot see parliamentary numbers adding up. A deal with the Conservatives, not their natural allies, will be uneasy at best. A deal with Labour would be unwieldy. So what to do? I don't know but one thing is clear - the Conservatives had clearly thought about a deal with the Lib Dems before the election and so lets hope that the Lib Dems had done the same.
Simon Marchini LRPS
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini
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