A funny new name for the new government (thought up by a clever coworker): Eton Mess! 
I don't think that formal coalitions (one side or the other) were the only way. Ideologically, I don't see that a Tory/Lib coalition is going to work. The numbers weren't there for Labour/Lib, along with other problems in doing that. I do think Clegg did it for a power play & in so doing has betrayed (IMO) a lot of his supporters. Why couldn't Clegg have summoned up some integrity, and at least stood in a more powerful opposition (alongside, but not in coalition with, Labour - if joining with Labour was too much to bear) to a minority Tory government?
If he did either of those things we would have seen an election this year. The Tories have deep pockets. Or rather, one set of very deep pockets that goes by the name Lord Ashcroft.
We may very well see another election this year, but this was the strongest route against that. Plus, this was a way for the Lib Dems to show that they believe in the possibilities of very different parties sharing the duty of forming a government. The form of electoral reform that the Lib Dems support would often produce coalitions. This is something that has been at the heart of the Liberal party for a very long time. Claiming that progressives can't work with a significant minority that are "not progressive" (the Tories) sort of means that they think that coalitions only work when there is some sort of historic agreement on some issues that someone along the way decided were more important than the numerous ones they disagree on.
So, what do you think the outcome of an election where Labour and the Lib Dems were broke, the Lib Dems have conceded defeat on coalitions unless they are with Labour (or "not Tories") and have brought into question their very purpose in British politics. Do you absolutely think that Labour would win? And say they won, national politics would have devolved into some weird system just focused on keeping the Tories out of power in Whitehall.
PR is our chance to cut the Tories down to size. Not eliminate. Not make politics a one party system or accept the inevitable back and forth between the two bloated coalitions that are known as "Labour" and "Conservative Party".
I do wish that Lib Dems pushed harder for PR. I have a feeling that there will be some squirming on the Tories' part if they don't agree to the referendum to be on PR and not AV.
I am curious what are the various perspectives on how Labour has gone wrong? I mean for some of you, the answer is probably just that 'they aren't Tories'. On the other hand, some have said that Labour strayed too far from its socialist roots, but if you feel that way I don't understand how you could be happy about the present government arrangement - if New Labour was Tory-lite, the ConDems are going to be Tory-heavier. I know a lot of Labour supporters aren't thrilled with the way a lot of things have gone, but then we are back to the lesser evil argument (and bearing in mind the Noam Chomsky quote: 'Choosing the lesser of two evils isn't a bad thing. The cliché makes it sound bad but it's a good thing. You get less evil.').
I was chatting with DH this morning before work & just saying how a lot of the stuff to be dealt with now (unemployment, credit crunch/global crisis, the wars, etc) would have happened anyway, no matter who was in power. It's not like these problems grew up & exploded in a vacuum right here in Britain, courtesy of the Labour Party. (Thatcher/Tories deregulated the banking industry, btw.) And it's a convenient thing for the Tories to point their fingers and say it's all Labour's fault. Of course, we won't know, but I am certain that the Tories would have dealt with some of this stuff that happened in much the same way - possibly doing an even worse job of it, who knows?
I don't think that the current economic mess is solely Labour's fault any more than I think that the mess in the States is solely the Republicans' fault. The deregulation, promotion of the culture of greed, and the failure to react didn't happen over night or just under one administration/government. What I did find objectionable about Labour is:
They made a huge mistake with allowing free immigration from the new countries joining the EU when they were one of only three countries to do so. This was a colossal boneheaded thing to do. In order to "rectify" it, they went after non-EU immigration in an almost punitive way. We still don't know what the full scope of the fallout will be because now the Tories get to implement their legislation.
In general Labour's become much more "populist". You talk about the media being American-like here. Sorry, I think you're wrong. I think it's more right wing than American media. It's just that probably a greater percentage of people here read a paper. 75% of the papers here are like reading The New York Post on a day when a liberal pissed in the editor's cornflakes. 10% tries to look a little more upmarket, but pretty much carry the same editorial stance. People tend to read the papers that confirm what they think they already know. There is no attempt at journalistic neutrality in the printed media here. Even the "Independent" which was founded to be away from the filthy grasps of partisan politics isn't by any means neutral most of the time. And didn't they endorse people in the past few elections (I may be wrong on that, but I thought they did).
If you run a government based on asking people to fill out questionnaires online, you're going to get dumb policies I'd say at least 85% of the time.
Then there's the Iraq war. And I wonder how easily Bush could have pulled it off without Blair's help. Add to that some of their rather scary impingements on civil rights (if that is the concern of the bourgeoisie, then I know what that makes me as I find some of it frightening). You know they locked up immigrant kids in detention centres, right?
When cuts happen, I am sure people will claim it is the Nasty Party and Nasty Party Lite lining their chums' pockets. Thing is, the cuts have to happen sometime under some government. Maybe the Tories and the Lib Dems will do it wrong. Maybe they will mess it up. I am not enthused that we've ended up with the Tories wielding the axe simply because I question their priorities. However, there would have been crying no matter who did it.
We sort of have to treat this like the problem it is, and stop being so partisan.
