Memo to fellow progressives: this might not be our “moment”. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news on the day that hundreds of people are gathering in central London to call for electoral reform, but I’m here to inform you that the Lib Dems might be about to do the unthinkable and join up with the Tories.
One senior Lib Dem frontbencher told me this morning that the Tories will “offer us a referendum on electoral reform. I have no doubt about it. They are desperate.” He added: “My ideal outcome is unachievable. Personally, I would like to have done a deal with Labour.”
So, are we on the verge of a blue-yellow coalition government, with Lib Dem ministers taking seats in a Cameron-led cabinet? Perhaps — but almost everything about this election and the campaign that preceded it has been unpredictable. There’s no reason why these post-election negotiations won’t turn out to be just as volatile or as erratic.
Personally, I hope and pray that Nick Clegg does not fall for the Tory proposals that are put in front of him in the coming days. He has to remember that Cameron and co can’t be trusted on electoral reform; the Conservatives are — and always will be — the party of the status quo.
But I’ve prepared myself to be disappointed. A Cameron-Clegg administration is no longer inconceivable. The Lib Dem leader’s ludicrous decision to refer to the party with the most seats and votes as having a “mandate” boxed him in and forced him to negotiate with the Tories first. I asked my Lib Dem source why he had done so. His reply: “There is no point in saying we’re going to play by rules that don’t exist. We’ve got to play by the rules as they are.”
Clegg and co may regret that decision at the next election.
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