Who would have thought? It's a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, and the LibDems get 4 cabinet ministers, as well as the Deputy Premiership for leader Nick Clegg. And so the drama in Britain ends.
The election on May 6th ended in a lose-lose-lose situation. The Conservatives (306) couldn't win their majority (326), Labour (258) didn't hang on with most seats, and the Liberal Democrats (57) polled a disappointing 24%, which while marginally up on 2005, actually got them less seats than in 2005.
To add to the confusion, normal ideological partners still didn't add up to the required 326 seats for a parliamentary majority. The Conservatives and the Northern Ireland Unionists (8) only added to 314, and the obvious Labour-LibDem coalition totaled only 315.
So the speculation began. Would it be a Conservative minority? Mathematically difficult. A Lib-Lab minority? Clegg said he'd never work with PM Brown. A Lib-Con majority? Political differences abound...
Then Gordon Brown blew his chances of staying on with an angry phone exchange. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives both say that coalition talks have been encouraging. Then Brown, in a last ditch attempt to help Labour, announces that he will step down as leader. And to no avail, as his own MPs were all over the news denouncing a Lib-Lab pact.
All this time, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats had been making progress in coalition talks, and as it was increasingly evident that this would be the new government, Gordon Brown tendered his resignation to the Queen today, and Conservative leader David Cameron was invited to be the next British Prime Minister.
Good luck, Mr. Cameron, and rule well.
