Labour types basically believe Lib Dem voters are naughty Labour children playing truant, and if they tut at them sternly enough they’ll do as they’re told.

I doubt Gordon Brown is hoping for “an outright Tory victory”

That Labour inconsistency is summed up by Gordon Brown – talking about how “I agree with Nick” but also repeatedly calling the party “Liberals”. It’s a small point, but really the only point in repeatedly getting the party’s name wrong is to try to needle its activists. That inconsistency has been running right through Labour’s campaign and I find it rather surprising because, whatever else you think of Peter Mandelson, he’s normally pretty good at picking a line and ensuring people stick to it religiously.

Do you live in one of the top 100 constituencies where you could prevent a Tory majority?
http://bit.ly/bDizHY

Spread the word.

Ooops, well spotted Denny. I mistakenly included a line by Cameron (now taken out).

The Camerson quote sliding in does sort of highlight the fact that both Tory and Labour are in many ways taking a similar line against the Lib Dems… they do seem to be going through the ‘first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, …’ thing almost in lock-step.

Cameron Expenses
So this is the man who quite soon will be asking us all to make sacrifices fort the good of the nation, most likely in the form of higher taxes, pay cuts, lost jobs, reduced pensions. The same man who according to the Telegraph “paid off a loan on his London house after he took out a taxpayer-funded £350,000 mortgage on his designated second home”.

Watch him squirm as Paxman grills him on the subject of politicians ‘over claiming’. Absolutely hilarious! So have a good laugh now and spread the good news because very soon the joke will be on us!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_d2__jB5j4

Why do I have this sinking feeling that Cameron will win a single-digit majority on Thursday…. either that or be no more than a few seats off a majority, and so rely on the Unionists etc maybe even the SNP to get his shit passed. End of an era.

One senior minister is endorsing tactical voting the other is slamming any such talk. The least they could have done is sat down together and figured out what their approach would be?

You could say the same of the Guardian editorial on Saturday: I suspect one bunch of readers is thinking ‘Vote LibDem, Get a LibDem Government’ and another bunch is wearing biohazard suits as they vote tactically to keep the Tories out.

If the LibDems hold a strong hand after the election, one of their demands might be the release of more documents about the invasion of Iraq (for example disclosure of documents that the Chilcot Inquiry has seen but has not released to the public). This is not a welcome development for some of the politicians who were directly involved. This is why, I think, you are seeing Blair coming out against tactical voting, because I doubt if he wants to see lots of LibDem MPs and lots of LibDem votes. This is why, I think, journalists like Nick Cohen and Oliver Kamm have called on people to vote Labour (though the logic in their articles is a bit hard to follow).

Some senior people in the Labour Party are realising that there has been a seismic shift in UK politics, and are groping towards a re-aligned politics. Some are fighting a rearguard action about their own reputations.

@ 8 blanco

“and so rely on the Unionists etc maybe even the SNP to get his shit passed”

I can’t speak for the SNP, but I’d think it is vanishingly unlikely that they would be able to stomach “toleration” of a Tory government, even if Cameron were inclined to try and bribe them (which would give him problems of his own in England I suspect?). I can almost hear the howls of protest from Scottish voters if Salmon tried that one!

The Tory-LibDem coalition in Leeds has certainly done a terrible job!