From Across The Pond...

I'm feeling political tonight apparently, so here's a dab of the good stuff from across the pond: the Independent is reporting that barely two months into a coalition government with the Conservatives, support for the Liberal Democrats is slumping to their early April low of 16%- which will only increase the sense of unease amongst the parties left wing.

I hope Nick Clegg and company take a deep breath and hold their ground. It's going to be tricky with the local elections next year, but if they have solid policy victories championed by the Lib Dems to take to voters next year, I think they can sell it to their supporters. The fact of the matter is that the Lib Dems had a moment and did the right thing! A stable government (even a coalition one) is good for the country, especially in a time of economic crisis and the voters had dealt a huge slap to Labor's mandate to govern. (More than a huge slap, more of a buzzsaw/machete/fillet type deal) and the biggest mark against the Lib Dems on the national level has always been the fact they had no experience in government and people weren't ready to take on a untried party for national government.

OK, so their Robin to the Conservative's Batman in this particular coalition, but they're in. They're governing. They need to take a deep breath and start selling their piece of the coalition pie to their party faithful and to the country at large.

(Random thought: assuming this lasts five years, how do you campaign against your former coalition partner? I want to see how they handle that.)

But hang tough, Lib Dems. Hang tough!