Prime Minister Cameron

By Michael J.W. Stickings

As you've already heard, I'm sure, Gordon Brown resigned yesterday, opening the door for Conservative David Cameron to be Britain's new prime minister, with Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats agreeing to a coalition deal that will give them five Cabinet spots, including Clegg as Cameron's deputy.

The BBC has some of the coalition details here.

While a Labour-led left-of-center coalition was a possibility, Brown just didn't have much legitimacy to govern, I think, or rather public perception of legitimacy, and a non-Brown coalition would have been weak, insecure, and short-lived. Indeed, as I suggested yesterday, the best thing for Labour, in the long run, was to admit defeat and regroup under a new leader and a new regime that leaves the Blair-Brown years behind.

It will be interesting to see how the Tory-LibDem coalition works out. The LibDems, after all, while a nominally liberal party that could be centrist, often run to the left of Labour, particularly in Scotland, and they seem to have given up a great deal for the sake of power, including their preference that the U.K. adopt a proportional representation electoral system for elections to Westminster. (The Tories have agreed to a referendum on the Alternative Vote system, which is decidedly not a PR system -- and which, ironically enough, could benefit Labour.) In addition, the LibDems have signed on with a governing party that will pursue right-wing economic, military, and immigration policies.

Selling out obviously comes at a price. Enjoy your brush with power, Clegg.