I'd like to point out to the comment previous commenter that actually, this election has NOT produced a decisive result - that is the point. That is why we now have a 'hung parliament'. More people voted against the Tories than with them...

Also, you say that if the Lib Dems get into bed with the Conservatives now people will 'respect them and next time they will do better'. It is in fact the complete opposite - a lot of people voted for the Lib Dems because they were disillusioned with Labour but couldn't bring themselves to vote Tory, and Nick Clegg appeared to present something different. If he now chooses to join forces with David Cameron, he will be betraying those people's hopes and they will not vote for him again.

You are basically completely out of touch with the real state of things, blue_samson. Just like every Tory.

natural allies are lib/lab

can't believe the clegg/cameron axis will happen

surely the libs will evaporate completely should they bunk up with Cameron

can two toffs really ignore the will of the people for PR so brazenly?

Yes Wilf - Plus Lady Harmon makes 330.

Nick Clegg should not have gone down the route of saying to Labour folk who WOULD have tactically supported him that he would take the fact they did not vote Labour ('cos they voted tactically for him - Duh!!) as a sign that he should support the Tories.

Bad signal. Bad mistake.

This is an opportunity to redeem himself in the eyes of progressive Labour voters.

"They've forgotten all the good things that Labour achieved in 13 years".

Hmm. There has been a substantial negative long term cost to the standard of living and jobs for ordinary UK people caused by this Labour administration. People can ignore but it wont help the country or the next generation.

13% of GDP is supported by government borrowing - its not sustainable to live on borrowing. Popular myths are that government borrowing does not belong to ordinary people and that it does not need to be paid back. Its led to the belief that the UK government can borrow an infinite amount and that it is free money where the liability falls on the rich and on businesses or that there is some economic wizardary which means the debt does not really exist.

Labour started spending heavily and borrowing heavily from around 2004 which ran out of control so that the problem is not new. The recent economic crisis has flushed it into the open from behind the closed doors. I hear from Labour insiders they are worried about the books being opened up just like they were about MP's expenses because the true position of the country is going to be a lot worse than is currently known e.g. the secrecy around what has been lent to the banks. The national debt could be over £1 trillion worse than is publically known due to the different financing arrangements the government has used and projects like the PPPs. It is going to reduce the UK's credit rating with a big knock on effect on interest rates for everyone.

If the economy breaks all records and grows at 3% per year for 20 years, it will take 11 years to reset current government $167bn per year borrowing (there is an growing interest charge which we are paying as borrowing is piled on borrowing each year) and a further 9 years to repay the extra money we borrow from today onwards. To do it faster will need some awful austerity measures including more taxes and big public sector cuts - its going to result in a lowering of the standard of living for the vast majority of people who supported labour over the last 13 years. But not for the multi-millionaires (of which labour has as many as the tories).

The truth is the economy is set for sluggish growth for many years because the private sector has been stifled, is small and depends heavily on the financial services sector. Whoever you vote for, its going to take at least 25 years to get the country's finances back to just to where we are today.

There is a red-blue political choice to be made between paying of off the increase in debt built up from today onwards in less than 30 years or leaving it to our children to deal with. The electorate has spoken that Scotland want to leave the debts just to the English to pay off on their own whilst England has voted for the UK to pay the debts off in less than 30 years.

The period from 2004-2010 will go down in history as the worst for the UK economy ever. Its probably the end of the UK as a union.

Cutting the public sector is going to result in frictional unemployment -- it will drive down pay levels, make the economy more competitive and accelerate growth of the private sector. The Labour team agrees with this - the only issue is how quickly the switch from public to private sector is made and the measures put in place to help the transition.

Well done Labour. You have earned full credit for the legacy you have left us with. No one else you can blame this time.

Introducing PR can only be a good thing - it means there will never be a Labour government in England for a generation.