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8 May 2010updated 27 Sep 2015 2:21am

Cameron lashed out at Clegg for “holding the whole country to ransom” on electoral reform

Worth remembering where we were before the “new politics” of a hung parliament.

By James Macintyre

As the two parties seek to win over the Liberal Democrats, much is (rightly) being made on the left of the apparent opportunity Gordon Brown missed in being a late and possibly rather reluctant convert to electoral reform.

But it is also worth remembering that, days before the election, the Conservative Party based its election pitch as a campaign against a hung parliament, and against electoral reform.

Further, David Cameron himself said this:

It’s now all becoming clear — the great plan of Nick Clegg’s is becoming clear — he’s only interested in one thing and that is changing our electoral system so that we have a permanent hung parliament, we have a permanent coalition, we never have strong and decisive government. That’s what he wants to do — it’s now becoming clear he wants to hold the whole country to ransom . . . just to benefit the Liberal Democrats.

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