Alex Massie Alex Massie

Everyone Says a Tory-Lib Dem Deal is Impossible; Everyone is Wrong

I am not surprised that Paddy Ashdown says the Liberal Democrats cannot work with the Conservatives. He would say that wouldn’t he? After all, Ashdown came close to selling his party to New Labour, lock, stock and barrel.

Nevertheless, the idea that the Tories and Liberals cannot work together (though doggedly contested by this blog and a few others) is by now Westminster’s latest piece of Conventional Wisdom*. I doubt that Andrew Neil likes to think of himself as a purveyor of the CW but there you have it: even he thinks a Con-Lib arrangement highly improbable. 

Guido thinks differently and so do I. True, Nick Clegg would need to secure the agreement of his party before making any deal with Cameron and true too that this is usually seen as a major obstacle. However Clegg has already begun the business of burying

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