What a pretty little pickle Nick Clegg’s found himself in. If he goes with the Tories he gets;
- Vague promises of voting ‘reform’ from Cameron that’ll evaporate once waxy-melty face Dave’s bespoke brogues are over the threshold of No.10;
whereupon Clegg’ll be;
- used as a scapegoat by the Conservatives, the media and the public alike and blamed for allowing the Tories’ savage public service/spending cuts and the resulting social unrest,
after which, he’ll be
- Discarded like a Cameroonian wank-stained tissue,
all whilst having earned;
- The eternal hatred of a substantial portion of his party
and
- the lasting contempt of anyone who voted for him
If he goes with Labour (but only if he can somehow get the numbers to work out) Clegg gets:
- all of the above, with knobs on and extra added vitriol, because he enabled the continuance of this busted flush of a government and allowed a psychotic PM to stay in power, despite Gordon Brown’s having been soundly rejected by the voters when put to the electoral test;
plus
- The danger of being lobotomized by a flying Nokia
and
- the prospect of Peter Mandelson ruling his life
So far as I can see Clegg’s best (for certain values of ‘best’) option would be to refuse an alliance with either, let the Tories try and form a minority government, and start campaigning like hell for the next election when it all falls apart.
Which it undoubtedly will.
