There are things some people would be happy to be blamed by David Cameron for

[andrewducker]

This amused me up no end:


More.

via Mark Pack.

(And yes, I know this doesn't make everything alright. Really.)

Comments

[steer.livejournal.com]

Strikes me as a moderately clever strategy and once which will not actually piss off his coalition partners.

1) Right leaning voters read "If you're discontented with me it's because of those damned Lib Dems" vote Tory.

2) Left leaning voters read "Those Lib Dems are doing something useful after all" vote Lib Dem not Labour.

Both messages would seem helpful to Cameron.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

As danieldwilliam commented on my post,

“Vote Cameron get Clegg” is perhaps not a bad electoral slogan for both the Lib Dems and UKIP.

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

The message seems helpful to Nick Clegg as well. The Lib-Dems need to convince their own supporters that they are having some influence in the coalition.

[andrewducker]

That would work in Cameron's advantage in the 286 seats at the last election that were Tory/Labour competitions. Not so well in the 206 seats that were Tory/LibDem competitions:
http://www.markpack.org.uk/31263/the-medias-problem-when-it-comes-to-general-elections/

[steer.livejournal.com]

I thought about that when I wrote what I said. In the last election, convincing an average voter to switch from Labour to Lib Dem is on average a good move for the Tories (286 times it's helpful and 206 times not so much) -- not so good as convincing them to switch to Tory but still a better move than leaving them voting Labour (on average). In the coming election unless the Lib Dems get a +2 sword of sudden electoral credibility its going to be more like 400 times it's helpful, 100 times it's not.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Exactly -- it seems win-win for the Coalition govt.

[andrewducker]

True.

Not that I expect the LibDems to do well no matter what in the next election. I can't imagine how stupid Labour would have to be to not take numerous seats from them.

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

It's also giving them a lot of apparent locus of control. If it weren't for the LibDems, he'd probably be governing even less as a full-blooded Daily Mail Tory, as leader of a minority government that has to see consensus on anything and everything to get it passed.

(I do sometimes get a bit exercised by LibDems claiming that they deserve the credit for the Tories not being as nasty as they would have been. That's true in the sense that the size of the LibDem representation in Parliament is the second-most important reason for the Tories not having a majority (never mind a working one), but the proper comparator for evaluating the decision to form the coalition is not what a majority Tory government would have done, but what a minority Tory government would have done.)

[andrewducker]

Gone on for 4 months in minority government, claimed it was unworkable due to Labour and Lib Dems not cooperating, called an election and gotten in with a solid majority?