There’s been much debate in Tory circles about the possibility of a Tory/LibDem coalition in the event of a hung parliament. Rather predictably the hard Tories are opposed to any thought of a deal, often due to what I see as misunderstandings of what the LibDems stand for (I fail to see this radically left wing party we’re told we are for example).
Looking at this from the other side, I doubt the LibDem membership would be happy with joining the Tories in a coalition, I certainly would have misgivings (and I’m not as rabidly anti-Tory as some members are).
The other side is a deal with Labour, which is something I would have serious problems with. The view that the LibDems and Labour are similar is wrong and deals with Labour have never gone well for Liberals in national politics. Like Cameron, Brown is no liberal.
To enter a full coalition we’d require things which neither party looks likely to give. PR for the Commons is necessary (either full STV or STV in cities and AV in large rural constituencies seem most likely, we should never settle for closed list systems or systems engineered to give any party an advantage). We would require the abolition of ID Cards and the database and many other laws (such as the limitations on protest) and a major reassessment of things like the DNA database.
The most likely situation, if a hung parliament does occur (it is not certain at all) is to vote on each issue singly, unless Tabman’s idea of a coalition of liberalscould come to fruition (and given the nature of party politics this doesn’t seem likely unfortunately)
