UK: Brown resigns

I'm not even going to provide a link, because it's everywhere.

But could someone please explain to me what the heck is going to happen now with the LibDems and all that?

The Liberal Democrats have agreed to form a coalition with the Conservatives. Therefore David Cameron can command a majority in the House Of Commons and can now form a government.

OK, that's what I thought. Hmmm. Not sure how welll this will go down with those who voted LibDem.

Now it's all over that the Queen has asked David Cameron to form a government. Done deal and all rather worrying.

OK, that's what I thought. Hmmm. Not sure how welll this will go down with those who voted LibDem.

Serves them right for being so stupid, I am tempted to say, but I won't. All I will say is that after this the day I even think about voting for the Liberal Democrats is the day that hell freezes over.

Serves them right for being so stupid, I am tempted to say, but I won't. All I will say is that after this the day I even think about voting for the Liberal Democrats is the day that hell freezes over.

You just did though.

I'm a life-long Labour supporter but voted Lib Dem, admittedly in a safe Labour seat.

Actually I prefer them doing a deal with the Conservatives than with Labour - I would have preferred Labour had they gained more seats but it would have been unsustainable as it stands and would have probably back-fired on Labour.
So the way I see it at the moment is we get a government, Labour can regroup and elect a new leader and I'm certain there'll be an election within a year.

Do you think that Cameron can do a better job than Brown??

What I'm seeing is that Cameron should hardly be dancing for joy. Like Obama, he's inherited a right old mess and playing the blame game on past Presidents or PMs won't help him any. People, rightly or wrongly, will expect a lot of quick fixes and will get disillusioned rapidly when improvements don't materialize yesterday. Like TykeMan I expect another election within the year.

For me, no matter what else happens, I am thrilled Gordan Brown is gone.

Apologies for the long post, but I linking to this wouldn't work as it's from a live blog (The Guardian). It's a summary of what is essentially the coalition manifesto:

Economic measures for an agreement which has deficit reduction "at its heart"

• £6b in year cuts in non frontline services subject to the advice from the treasury and the bank of england (Tory)

• Scrapping of national insurance rises (Tory)

• A substantial increase in the personal tax allowance from April 2011 with a focus on low and middle income earners, with a "long term goal" of a £10,000 personal tax allowance. There is no a timetable for this, but there is a promise to make further real term steps each year towards this objective. This is described as a "funded increase". It will be funded by taking the money the Tories had planned to use to increase the employee threshold for national insurance, and by an increase in capital gains tax for non business assets to bring it closer to the level of income tax.

• Marriage tax allowance. The liberal democrats have agreed to abstain on this, which gives the Tories a "real chance" of getting that through.

Lib Dem pledges that have been dropped

• Tax relief for higher rate pensioners will not be pursued

• Mansion tax

Tory pledges that have been dropped

• Raising the threshold on inheritance tax which is described as "unlikely to be achieved in this parliament".

Lib Dems priorities that have been secured

• Referendum to bring in some form of alternative vote system. Coalition members will be subject to three-line whip to force the legislation for a referendum through, but they will be free to campaign against the reforms before referendum.

• New pupil premium to be introduced, steering more funding to schools for every child they take from poor homes. Both parties back this policy, but the Lib Dem version attaches more money to it.

• Reducing the tax burden on low earners. This could go some way towards the Lib Dem aim of lifting tax threshold to £10,000.

• A wholly or mainly elected house of Lords.

• More equal constituency sizes

• Fixed term parliaments, including this one. The next general election will be held on the first Thursday of May 2015. Legislation will mean such agreements can only be broken by an enhanced majority of the House of Commons.

Tory priorities that have been secured

• A cap on immigration and an end to child detention immigration controls (the latter was a Lib Dem proposal).

• Welfare reform programme to be implemented in full.

• School reform programme providing all schools are held accountable.

• A commitment to maintaining Britain's nuclear deterrent. Renewal of Trident will be scrutinised to ensure value for money. Liberal Democrats will be free to continue the case for alternatives.

• The government will make no proposals to join the euro.

• No proposals to transfer new powers to the European Union.

• A referendum lock will ensure that any proposal to transfer new powers must by law be put to a referendum.

Areas that were already in agreement will see a major programme of civil liberties

• A great repeal or freedom bill to scrap the ID card scheme and the national identity register and the next generation of biometric passports

• Extending the scope of the Freedom of Information bill to provide greater transparency

* Adopt protections of the Scottish model for the DNA database

• Protecting trial by jury

• Reviewing libel laws to protect freedom of speech

• Further regulation of CCTV and other items

• Measures to boost economy in key areas such as low-carbon industries and investment in infrastructure. A green investment bank, a smart grid, retention of energy performance certificates while scrapping home information packs.

Areas of opt outs for either party

• Lib Dems will be free to maintain their opposition to nuclear power while permitting the government to put forward the national planning statement for ratification by parliament so that new nuclear construction becomes possible.

Banking reform

• A banking levy will be introduced.

• Bonuses will be tackled.

• A "more competitive banking industry".

• More credit to flow to businesses. The proposals of the respective parties will be looked at before deciding which is the better one.

• An independent commission will be set up to consider Lib Dem proposals to separate retail and investment banking and the Tories' proposals for a quasi separation. An interim report will be published within a year.

• The Bank of England could be given control of macro prudential regulation and oversight of micro prudential regulation under proposals to be put forward.

Does the fixed-term parliament deal mean there's not a realistic chance of another election happening within a year, as previous posters suggested might happen?

Does the fixed-term parliament deal mean there's not a realistic chance of another election happening within a year, as previous posters suggested might happen?

I don't think it will affect the chance of an early election.  Under the present system, a parliament can last no more than five years. A Prime Minister must call an election no later than 5 years after the last one. However he or she can call one at any time before that. The clock starts ticking once again at that point. If fixed term parliaments were brought in, that option would be removed.

However, as now, an election would still be mandatory if a government were defeated on a vote of confidence in the House Of Commons. Also, I cannot see the fixed-term thing being brought in instantly; there would have to be legislation.

Also, I cannot see the fixed-term thing being brought in instantly; there would have to be legislation.

I am worried that they are going to try to shove this through as soon as possible, so as to get their (rather tenuous) seats guaranteed for 5 years & not have to sweat through another election this year as is expected.  Lib Dems have got to know their goose is cooked now with a lot of people who trusted them, and the majority Condem government I think will try to pull out all the stops to be able to park their a*ses in parliament for awhile now - the Tories have been so desperate to get back in power, and the Lib Dems so desperate to get some power.

Am considering actually joining the Labour Party now.  I believe that a lot of people are doing that right now - especially those who voted Lib Dem in this election. 

Lib Dems have got to know their goose is cooked now with a lot of people who trusted them,

Not directly at Mrs Robinson but just a general lib dem query.  Why do you think the lib dems's have done wrong?  Surely a coalition with whichever party was short of majority was obvious? Clegg certainly didn't say he would never join with the conservatives.

Isn't it the case that some lib dem victories are better than none?

Well, I am not sure if people think that it would have been better if the Lib Dems didn't do a coalition, and we had another election soon.  People would argue that coalitions don't work, the Tories probably would have won a majority with nothing to check them at all, and the Lib Dems would have taken a huge hit then as well.  Neither Labour nor the Lib Dems would have had money to fight that election.

I don't think this is the best outcome, but I could think of a few that would have been worse.  

ETA: The left needs more to define itself than "Not Tory".  The "Rainbow Coalition" wouldn't have worked because not all of Labour was for it, and it would have required constant whipping of both big parties and hoping the nationalists would cooperate just based on the "Not Tory" cause and not make unreasonable demands.

I would have loved to see Labour retain a few more seats and see a big coalition between them and the Lib Dems provided they were able to work together.  I think that would have been the best outcome.  A bitter big coalition or a tenuous smaller one would have been horrible.