Political Poker

The results of the election could not have been better engineered to cause a game of political poker. The next couple of days will be fascinating to see what emerges from this stalemate of an election. The real issue is to tackle the financial deficit - even more so in the light of the Greek tragedy and the fragility of European economies. And the second issue is a commitment to electoral and constitutional reform. It would make a great deal of sense if an agreement could be reached between the main parties and progress made on these two issues with the promise of an election in, say, 2 to 3 years time. Long enough to progress these issues but not too long to create the bad vibrations that could scupper economic recovery and escalate our endemic political antagonisms even more.

Either Brown or Cameron could secure a deal with Clegg and co. Brown has the first shot as the sitting PM but will probably need the Green (good result), SDLP, Alliance and maybe the Nats, who would certainly favour some types of proportional representation, to bolster any agreement with the Lib Dems. Cameron and Clegg would have a good working majority but there is an enormous gulf between them on the economy and taxation. The Tories would probably prefer not to concede any commitment to electoral reform.

So its over to you Nick, who lurves you the most and who do you agree with. From a dreadful set of election results you can outface either of the big players or if you want just let the Tories take the strain over the next year or so in a minority government and then have another go at a first past the post election. By which time the Tories may be in the mire of economic and public service collapse but Labour may be on the mend after a change of leader.  Not an easy choice and not one to get wrong for all our sakes.