As the howls of anguish seep out of CCHQ that the LibDems will keep Brown in, Guido begs to differ, there is that risk of course but it is not as great a risk as they claim.  There is also a great prize on offer, Brown can lead the Labour Party over the abyss into electoral oblivion destroying the Labour Party as a party of government.  Statist, redistibutive social democracy has now been tested to the destruction of the nation’s finances.  This election now presents an historic chance to break the Labour Party.

As Tories scream and point to Lib-Lab councils and the bearded sandal wearing activists who want to ban the bomb and legalise dope for purchase in euros, Guido says look at the reality.  Since Charlie Kennedy’s demise the LibDems have been moving quietly to the right on economics, have jettisoned a lot of their loopiest policies and the Tories under Cameron have moved towards the LibDems on civil liberties, the environment and localism.  The parties respective policies are closer now than they have been for over half-a-century.  Cameron is telling the truth when he says that he is a liberal-conservative.  Nick Clegg is a former Cambridge Conservative who is now a Liberal.  They fact is they are both instinctively liberal metropolitan modernisers.

“But they are weirdie beardies” cry the Cameroon girls and boys distastefully in CCHQ.  LibDem activists may be, but the parliamentary party is not and it is the parliamentary party with which they would have to work with in government.  Here is a vote map based on data from MySociety’s Public Whip showing how increasingly over the course of the last three parliaments the LibDems more and more vote with the Tories:

We are possibly entering into an era of multi-party realpolitik.  Clegg isn’t stupid, he won’t want to prop up Gordon Brown, it would infuriate voters and betray his whole change message.  He is going to prefer to do a deal with the other ‘change’ candidate.  If Cameron together with Clegg play it right, they can destroy the Labour Party forever…