The first anniversary of the coalition government has been and gone, and ñ like its members, no doubt ñ we have no clear idea of what its future will be. The various elections that accompanied the anniversary didnít help. By general consent the Lib Dems had most to worry about after the counting, Nick Clegg especially. It is hard to make confident judgments about the wisdom or otherwise of their decision to join the coalition, still less their subsequent performance, given the difficulty of their position after the general election. I thought then (and still think) that there probably was no alternative to the present arrangement. A coalition with Labour was not on the cards. The Lib Dems could have come to a ëconfidence and supply agreementí with the Tories whereby they would support a minority Conservative government on a piecemeal basis, but a formal coalition, they hoped, would tie the Tories to a five-year parliament and eliminate the chances of an opportunistic election.

LRB 2 June 2011 | PDF Download