No thawing in Ed Miliband’s attitude to the Liberal Democrats

Ed Miliband’s interview with The Times today is striking for the language he uses about the Liberal Democrats. There’s no attempt to follow up last week’s Clegg, Miliband outflanking of Cameron with a love bombing of the deputy Prime Minister. Instead, there’s an emphasis that it would be ‘very difficult to work in a future Labour government with somebody who has taken the opposite position in a Tory government’. There are no warm words for Vince Cable either: “He flirts with the right position but doesn’t consummate it.”

I think this reveals two things. First, Miliband knows that the coalition is surprisingly solid; it is not going to collapse anytime soon whatever the differences over press regulation. Second, he has, quite sensibly, decided not to begin any coalition negotiations until after the election.