Alistair Osborne: UK General Election ... 1974 doesn't look any better second time around
[Alistair Osborne is Business Editor at the Telegraph.]
Last time there was a hung Parliament, Britain was drowning in debt, the global economy was rocky and, across UK industry, the workers were revolting. Sound familiar?
Harold Wilson's Lab-Lib coalition struggled along to the soundtrack of Carl Douglas's Kung Fu Fighting. Appropriate that. The pact started on March 4 and fell apart in time for a second election on October 10, when Wilson got in with a majority of three. Two years later Britain was being bailed out by the IMF.
History may not repeat itself. But you wouldn't bank on it. Despite David Cameron's brave face, this was not the result that he, the country or the markets needed.
The plummeting pound in early trading told you that – even if Nick Clegg steadied nerves by clarifying, pointedly, that he would back the Tories rather than partner up with Gordon Brown. The deluded Scot would nail himself to the door of Number 10 to remain PM but a re-run of the Lab-Lib pact would be a cruel joke. What would that alliance agree on anyway? To build half the third runway at Heathrow?
It's surreal that Clegg – whose party's ended up with fewer seats than the 62 it started with – should now be cast in the role of kingmaker. But that's the fun of hung parliaments: losers get to dictate some terms. Yet, is there really any hope for coalition Camegg?..
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
Last time there was a hung Parliament, Britain was drowning in debt, the global economy was rocky and, across UK industry, the workers were revolting. Sound familiar?
Harold Wilson's Lab-Lib coalition struggled along to the soundtrack of Carl Douglas's Kung Fu Fighting. Appropriate that. The pact started on March 4 and fell apart in time for a second election on October 10, when Wilson got in with a majority of three. Two years later Britain was being bailed out by the IMF.
History may not repeat itself. But you wouldn't bank on it. Despite David Cameron's brave face, this was not the result that he, the country or the markets needed.
The plummeting pound in early trading told you that – even if Nick Clegg steadied nerves by clarifying, pointedly, that he would back the Tories rather than partner up with Gordon Brown. The deluded Scot would nail himself to the door of Number 10 to remain PM but a re-run of the Lab-Lib pact would be a cruel joke. What would that alliance agree on anyway? To build half the third runway at Heathrow?
It's surreal that Clegg – whose party's ended up with fewer seats than the 62 it started with – should now be cast in the role of kingmaker. But that's the fun of hung parliaments: losers get to dictate some terms. Yet, is there really any hope for coalition Camegg?..