There is a lot of wishful thinking on the left about a progressive coalition that won 52 per cent of the vote in the election. Labour's 29 per cent plus the Liberal Democrats' 23 per cent outvotes the reactionary fox-hunting sceptic Tories with their measly 36 per cent. QED. Surely that nice liberal Nick Clegg with a Spanish wife can see that? So what's all this cosying up to David Cameron, then? As one Lib Dem activist said on Friday, it is "like a twist in a film when you realise one of the heroes is the bad guy".
I can understand why Labour cabinet ministers might want to push that story. Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, said at some point early on Friday morning: "People have voted in their majority for reform of the voting system." But it is an argument that flies about as well as Nigel Farage's plane. You might as well say that 59 per cent of the electorate voted to oppose the third runway at Heathrow, which is Conservative and Lib Dem policy. And most voters probably feel more strongly about runways than they do about electoral reform.
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