Looks like the Tories reckon we’re going to do it all over again in the autumn…

Puts wheels in motion for Labour leadership election.

UPDATE : Will be gone by conference. Offers the Lib Dems a chance to form coalition with him until the autumn, when he will be replaced by victor of Labour leadership contest. Clegg has requested formal talks. Quite the spanner in the works.

UPDATE II : And the Pound crashes in reaction…

Sources say the negotiating teams have a deal to sell their respective parties.  We’ll know what shape that deal takes shortly…

LibDemVoice has just released a poll of LibDem members – 80% say that without significant progress on electoral reform the deal is off.  So that is one part of the triple-lock that the key may not be in in.  The Federal Executive is the other part of the lock – some 35 strong, which means that if 9 liberal-lefties or PR purists say nay, it will have less than 75% support and the deal is off.

It ain’t going to be easy for Clegg to get 75% support from his MPs and the Fed Exec for a full blown coalition with the Tories unless there’s a solid deal on PR, which it doesn’t seem there is (at least in the eyes of LibDem activists – some of whom think securing anything less than immediate legislation for STV would be a sell out).  So, say the LibDem triple lock stays locked, what next?

It may be that in that situation some of the more right-wing LibDem MPs are willing to propel Cameron into Downing Street anyway. Cameron may also be willing to offer ministerial positions to any LibDems who do go for UDI if the weirdie-beardie party machinery hampers a deal…

A senior Tory MP told Gary Gibbon…

“We feel the hand of history on our gonads, squeezing very hard.”

Guido was under the impression that MPs lost their seats because they are unpopular and people were fed up with listening to them. So of course BBC feel the need to turn two such washed-out LibDems into permanent pundits – unelected failures still preaching.

Dr Evan Harris and Lembit Opik haven’t been off the air-waves ever since the delicious news of their defeats emerged. If anyone thought we might finally be free of Harris’s evangelical atheism then think again. Though his new career path is more respectful than his previous choices…

The  Liberal Democrats have been notoriously short of talking heads in the past and as they are thrust into the limelight their lack of decent people to push their line is becoming painfully clear. Laughing-stock Lembit is hardly a reassuring presence on the screen. At least we can still keep an eye on him this way. Due to their imminent oblivion, at least it isn’t Labour losers the cameras are turning too. Being lectured by Jacqui Smith and Shahid Malik would be a step too far…