ToryDiary: We are currently witnessing the best advert against changing the electoral system
Robert Leitch on Platform: There is trouble ahead for the Union
LeftWatch: More Labour MPs tell Gordon Brown that the writing is on the wall
Mark Wallace on Local Government: No excuses on Council transparency
Anthony Browne on CentreRight: Why aren't Conservatives demonstrating on Whitehall to demand that Brown relinquish power?
Coalition talks to reconvene at 10am this morning...
...as Nick Clegg sets a deadline for their conclusion
"Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, has given himself until the end of today to decide whether to let David Cameron form a government, or instead risk a deal with Labour that might be seen as illegitimate by the public and jeopardise the success of a yes vote in a referendum on electoral reform." - The Guardian
Benedict Brogan: The full extent of David Cameron's audacity is beginning to emerge
"He is offering to trade reform of the voting system for a two-year deal with Nick Clegg that would deliver economic and social change and, in particular, the painful cuts needed to reduce the deficit. Suddenly, it is the Conservatives who are the radicals. Insiders say his priority is to agree a formal deal, possibly even a coalition, with Mr Clegg that would secure Lib Dem agreement for Tory proposals to reform the education and welfare systems and, in particular, for immediate spending cuts. In exchange he would agree to hold a referendum on the proposals for voting reform developed by a new commission of inquiry that would conclude during this Parliament. " - Daily Telegraph
> Yesterday's coverage of the talks:
- William Hague says that the talks with the Lib Dems will reconvene on Monday
- WATCH: William Hague's full statement at the end of today's negotiations
- Michael Gove says he would give up his Cabinet seat to a Lib Dem to make a deal happen
David Cameron seeks to reassure Tory MPs
"David Cameron today continues a personal drive to reassure his MPs about the decision to hold power-sharing talks with the Lib Dems. He will address the 1922 Committee of Tory backbench MPs at Westminster following his “open house” invitation in his Parliamentary office yesterday for MPs to join him for tea and a chat. Many MPs were not in London and there was grumbling among those who got the message too late. A steady trickle of visitors held one-to-one talks or chatted in groups. " - Daily Express
> Yesterday's ToryDiary: What David Cameron will tell the Parliamentary Party
Tory Right demands post for Duncan Smith as compensation for Lib Dem deal - The Times
"David Cameron faces a momentous challenge to hold his troops together if he negotiates a deal with Nick Clegg, Tories from all wings of the party warned last night. Opposition has been growing to suggestions that Mr Cameron could give ground on electoral reform in order to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. The discontent has been exacerbated by discontent among some MPs over the style of the election campaign, which saw the party fail to make the historic breakthrough forecast by the polls just six months ago." - The Independent
Leaders want a deal; their followers may not - William Rees-Mogg in The Times
Graham Brady urges Cameron to go it alone
"Despite his pivotal kingmaker role, Clegg is actually in a weak position. David Cameron should hold his nerve and take the risk of the Tories governing alone without an overall majority." - Melanie Phillips in the Daily Mail
"David Cameron has three options other than plumping for opposition, which he does not (and should not) want to do. The first is No Surrender: go it alone, and form a government without the Liberal Democrats. The second is Unilateral Disarmament: offer proportional representation and in effect merge the two parties. The third is Principled Negotiation: be imaginative, be generous but don’t leap into a deal that would split your party." - Paul Goodman in The Times
Clegg is warned over PR 'cave-in'
"Nick Clegg may be dumped as Lib Dem leader if he gives in on the party's demand for voting system change, it emerged last night. A referendum on proportional representation is the biggest sticking point in the Tory-Lib Dem coalition talks. The Tories, who firmly oppose PR because it weakens government, have so far offered only a full Commons inquiry on Westminster reform. But thousands of grass-roots party members - and a host of senior MPs - have told Mr Clegg that must be his red line." - The Sun
"Senior Liberal Democrat figures have told The Times that the party will endorse a tie-up with the Conservatives only if David Cameron cedes the right as prime minister to determine the date of the next election. They also want the next election to be fought using the alternative vote system, where the electorate numbers their candidates in order of preference. “This is the minimum that they must deliver,” said one." - The Times
Julian Glover: The onus is on Lib Dems. Do this Tory deal, or be consigned to irrelevance
"The onus is on Liberal Democrats. Politics is about the pursuit of power. They are close to it. They must take it. A prissy standoffishness would consign them to irrelevance and confirm the very fact that they hoped this election would prove wrong: Britain still cannot escape its old political tribes." - Julian Glover in The Guardian
"Desperate" Brown tries to woo Clegg
"Gordon Brown mounted a secret last-ditch attempt to cling to power last night as the Tories and Lib Dems edged closer to a deal that will see David Cameron enter Downing Street... Though the Lib Dem leader had promised to talk to the Tories first about a power-sharing agreement, details emerged of a clandestine meeting between him and Mr Brown in the Foreign Office. The rendezvous took place just a few hundred yards from the 'official' talks between the Tory team and their Lib Dem counterparts. Labour sources said Mr Brown was mounting a desperate eleventh hour bid to 'throw a spanner in the works' and sabotage the Tory-Lib Dem talks." - Daily Mail
Nigel Lawson: Only rapid and unpopular government action will prevent a disastrous loss of confidence in our economy
Tory activists blame 'David Cameron's chums' for failure to win power
"Angry Conservatives are telling the party's leadership that David Cameron must break up his "chums circle" running the party and bring on board veterans who were largely excluded from the election campaign. Amid mounting recriminations over Cameron's failure to secure an overall parliamentary majority, Tory anger is focused on the tight circle that ran the campaign and the relatively inexperienced shadow ministers who sold the Tory message on television. Conservative officials, who will start to be laid off tomorrow, turned on the party's director of strategy, Steve Hilton, in a series of tense encounters on Friday." - The Guardian
Bruce Anderson: Mistakes that cost Mr Cameron dear
"It would be foolish to rush to conclusions about an election in which the results were so varied, but I would make four tentative assumptions. First, that most of the sane bigots did vote Tory. Second, that if David Cameron had not used the language of hope and renewal, he would not have done as well as he did. He had to distance himself from the old politics. Third, that George Osborne was an electoral liability. If William Hague or Ken Clarke had been shadow Chancellor, David Cameron would have been kissing hands on Friday. Fourth, that the great strategic weakness of the Tory campaign was the failure to harmonise change and stability." - Bruce Anderson in The Independent
Boris Johnson: Get Gordon Brown out and deal with the real problems
Miliband brothers expected to join battle for Labour leadership
"The prospect of brothers fighting it out for the Labour leadership remained real last night as David Miliband emerged as a certain contender in the battle to succeed Gordon Brown, and Ed Miliband was urged to put himself forward. As Mr Brown held on in Downing Street, fulfilling his constitutional role until negotiations between the parties were complete, all the contenders to take his job maintained a prim radio silence on the leadership question." - The Times
The phantom ministers who still haunt Westminster
"They are the Labour ministers who were kicked out by the voters last week but are still in office. Electors have handed at least 19 their marching orders, but constitutional rules decree the government remains until Gordon Brown resigns and the Queen appoints a new prime minister." - Daily Mail
Angela Merkel's CDU defeated in key state election
- 58% of voters want Cameron to rule on his own
- Cameron should mind his internal as well as his external coalition
- David Cameron writes to Tory supporters
- Redwood brandishes the flag of England
Nigel Jones on Platform: What 20th Century British political history teaches us about coalition government
CentreRight posts:
- Stephan Shakespeare: Cameron can turn this into a conclusive victory and How the grassroots can make a coalition work
- Sheila Gunn: How will the media react to the new political environment?
- Graeme Archer: We should aim for a Cameron-led Tory-LibDem administration that can stay in office for a reasonable length of time, for at least the next twelve months
- Melanchthon: The Conservatives were obviously better than their incompetent, exhausted, divided, failed alternate. The System has failed.
- Alex Deane on CentreRight: We are about to underwrite future EU bailouts - and can do nothing to stop it
WATCH: Tim Montgomerie and Jill Kirby conduct a mock coalition negotiation with Lib Dems Olly Grender and Evan Harris for Channel Four News
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