No Lib-Con Coalition!

First, here's the final Conservative election broadcast of this campaign...



David Cameron has, earlier today, ruled out a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, should Thursday's election produce a hung parliament and the Conservatives end up without an overall majority.

This is good news, as there really is no scope for watering-down the policies and actions that will be necessary for the nation's recovery from its perilous state today. The plan is for Cameron to ask the Queen to be allowed to form a minority government, and if that is agreed to then challenge the other parties to either accept or vote down the resultant Queen's Speech and Budget.

It would be a bold move; but it would be difficult in the present circumstances for the other major parties (in particular the Lib Dems) to vote against those two crucial items of parliamentary business. It is therefore likely to succeed, though those same parties might then make a lot of mischief in the years that follow.

Since Cameron's disclosure, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has tried to suggest this is "breathtaking arrogance" by the Conservative leader, and at a campaign rally a little earlier he said that Cameron was "already measuring the curtains at Number Ten" as if he and his party had already won the election. Clegg, of course, is reliant upon a coalition to further his own ambitions, not to respect the country's views as expressed at the ballot box, so his mood must be read in that context.

Clegg's actually rather nasty claim (which will undoubtedly be shown in this evening's news broadcasts) was highly misleading, as will become readily apparent when one listens to it; but Cameron has already re-affirmed his long-standing "no complacency and no assumptions" message, so there's no inconsistency there.

That is where we currently stand on that bit of business; and the very latest news is that the final marginals poll for Reuters is reported as showing a late swing to the Conservatives and indicates a likely narrow overall majority. I still believe that the voting will harden between now and Polling Day, and that there will be an overall Conservative majority of around 30 to 40, possibly higher.