As coalition talks continue in the UK both Labour and the Conservatives are proving themselves arrogant as usual.
The biggest barrier to a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition is the Conservatives’ refusal to support a referendum on electoral reform, offering instead a toothless “all party committee of inquiry on political and electoral reform”; the Conservatives would rather retain an unfair voting system which disenfranchises not just a third of voters (about 10 million people) but also 16 million or so eligible voters who didn’t vote, most of whom probably don’t see the point in voting in a representative system that clearly isn’t even representative.
Meanwhile Labour is dashing its own chances of forming a coalition, which, along with the Liberal Democrats, would require the support of other smaller parties too. Alex Salmond of the Scottish National Party offered that support yesterday. Labour’s apparent response? Unbelievably to refuse it:
Scotland’s First Minister, SNP leader Alex Salmond, called on the Lib Dems to join a “progressive alliance” involving Labour, the SNP and Plaid Cymru.
However a Labour source dismissed that as “a desperate attempt by Alex Salmond to make himself look relevant after a terrible general election result”.