Then it came. And there was silence. The whole place fell completely silent. Brown answered the phone, and we could hear him saying: "Nick, Nick. I can't hold on any longer. Nick. I've got to go to the palace. The country expects me to do that. I have to go. The Queen expects me to go. I can't hold on any longer." Presumably Clegg was trying to get him to not go to the palace while he extracted some more concessions from Cameron. I assume. Those people who could were listening in to the conversation via other phones. It was very, very quiet. Then that phone call ended and Brown, basically, said: "Whatever happens, I am going to go to the palace." Nick Clegg phoned again a few minutes later and must have said: "OK right. Go to the palace if you have to." So he did. In other words, even at that very late stage on Tuesday afternoon, after the Tories thought Clegg was finally finalising the deal with them and when Brown was preparing to go to the Palace because as far as Labour was concerned it was all over, Clegg was still trying to get more concessions out of Gordon Brown. Isn’t the new open and clean politics wonderful! Cameron's new best friend
Friday, 14 May 2010
I was intrigued by the vignette published in yesterday’s Guardian in which photographer Martin Argles was interviewed about what he heard when he was given exclusive access to 10 Downing Street to capture the final moments of Gordon Brown’s premiership. Argles reported the tension as Brown and his aides waited for Nick Clegg to phone with his decision about Labour’s offer of a coalition. He said:
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