Will This Bite Him In The Backside In A Few Months?

[youngmafbog]

http://news.sky.com/story/1446026/miliband-rules-out-snp-coalition-deal

I can quite see where he is coming from but he is either very brave or very foolish.

It is most likely that neither Tory or Labour will get sufficient for an overall majority meaning one of them will have to get into bed with someone.

Will Miliband weasel out of this pledge with an 'informal' agreement? I think that could damage the labour party for a long time to come if he did.

[mikey4444]

As I understand it, Labour have said that they will rule out a formal coalition with the SNP. But they have not ruled out informal "pacts" on a item by item basis. These sort of pacts have existed for many years.

Judging by the way that Cleggie and other LibDEms have been quite nasty about their current coalition partners lately, I would be surprised if they did it again with the Tories, so who knows....it could be a Labour-LibDem coalition !

[Bazile]

Isn't that what Cameron said he is prepared to do with UKIP - i.e. no coalition
but an agreement ?

[andy-hughes]

I think Milliband may just go into an 'informal' pact, and let it formalise over time, when he thinks the electorate have exercised their notoriously short memory.

I fail to see why discussion about a pact with SNP should feature a poster showing Alec Salmond - he is not the leader of the SNP, it's Nicola Sturgeon.

Don't these people keep up???

[youngmafbog]

I doubt the lib dems will have enough seats.

Having an informal pact with the SNP could be a real problem. Where they really need the support is in the budget and that is where Sturgeon will hold labour to ransom.

[youngmafbog]

//I fail to see why discussion about a pact with SNP should feature a poster showing Alec Salmond - he is not the leader of the SNP, it's Nicola Sturgeon. //

I suspect they think more people will remember Salmond more.

Does sound fishy though.

[youngmafbog]

//Isn't that what Cameron said he is prepared to do with UKIP //

Totally different. UKIP will not have the seats to do a deal like the SNP will have.

[jim360]

After all the pressure everyone has come under to second-guess the result of an election in well over a month still, it's not too surprising that Miliband has finally cracked and said something definite about his intentions. I think it would have been rather unfair to blame him for hedging his bets and saying "look, we have no intentions to go into an SNP coalition because well, we're hoping to win, but if in the aftermath it becomes clear that we didn't win but that a coalition with the SNP would be a possibility we might consider it, but for god's sakes shut up about it until after the vote already", which is sort of what the Labour spokeswoman on Question Time last week was saying.

Politics can really be a shabby business at times when people are backed into corners for literally no good reason. Who knows? Maybe the SNP will struggle to make enough gains in Scotland after all. There are so many other possible permutations at this point.

[mikey4444]

The one aspect of all this talk about the SNP is.... do their supporters realise that they may be the cause of a further 5 years of Tory rule ?

The SNP were roundly defeated just a few months ago, in the Referendum. But now it looks as if they coming back for a second bite at the cherry.

The people of Scotland have shown no great love for the Tory party for many years now, so why vote for a party that may cause the Tories to win ?

Its a makes no sense to me.

[whirlyhurly]

All promises, promises. To be take with a large pinch of salt.

[whirlyhurly]

^taken

[andy-hughes]

youngmafbog - // //I fail to see why discussion about a pact with SNP should feature a poster showing Alec Salmond - he is not the leader of the SNP, it's Nicola Sturgeon. //

I suspect they think more people will remember Salmond more. //

A valid point - but the same could be said of Blair - but any negotiations will still have to be conducted with little Ed.

[jim360]

If indeed SNP supporters are "trapped" by the current system into voting Labour to keep the Tories out, it's a sad indictment of a broken system, etc etc...

But it seems unlikely that any party can command a majority in Parliament while also struggling to win any seats at all in Scotland or Wales. England remains roughly split down the middle between the two top parties.

[youngmafbog]

Not so sure many Scottish (SNP types) will want to vote labour after labour supporting the in campaign. Tories or not because they will still see the SNP has having control - even without an agreement. (and they would have control)

[naomi24]

Will it bite him on the backside in a few months? Possibly – just as much of what he says seems to bite him on the backside. Ed makes what he thinks are the right noises at the time.

[ichkeria]

It's neither brave nor foolish, just correct. The SNP are not fit, in my opinion, to be in a government of the UK. I cannot see how a Labour/SNP coalition could work any more than a Tory/SNP one would

When Cameron came out and urged Miliband to do this I did wonder if it was (yet another) Tory ploy: to try and make it less likely that he would do so, Because it is very damaging to Labour to be seen to be in hock potentially to the SNP. I wonder if Cameron therefore is a wee bit disappointed :-)

[ladyalex]

I think this is all hot air as I do not think that the SNP has ever or would ever have any interest in forming a coalition with Milliband or anyone else.
They have no interest in ruling England, Wales or Northern Ireland, only in ruling Scotland.
It seems to me that if the polls are right and the SNP gets a lot of seats then they will be entering into agreements all over the place with whoever they think will help them to get what they want....more powers to a Scottish government.

[New Judge]

“I would be surprised if they [the LibDems] did it again with the Tories…”

Do not be surprised at anything they do, Mikey. They would climb into bed with Attila the Hun if the spare keys to No 10 were kept in the bedside cabinet. However, as has been said, unless the electorate has completely lost its marbles they are unlikely to have sufficient seats for them to be of sufficient interest to anybody.

“They have no interest in ruling England, Wales or Northern Ireland, only in ruling Scotland. “

If the SNP can hold sway over the Westminster Parliament they will think they’ve died and gone to heaven (if only they would). It would be beyond their wildest dreams to pull the strings of whoever forms a government next May and that is why I wished and wished that the Referendum had returned a resounding “Yes” vote. The SNP could by now have been making plans to manage on “their” diminishing oil revenues and making their application to join the EU (behind, of course, the current official candidates, Albania, Iceland, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey)

[youngmafbog]

//It's neither brave nor foolish, just correct. The SNP are not fit, in my opinion, to be in a government of the UK//

The problem is, you are not a normal person (and I mean that in a nice way)

Most dont look past the end of their nose.

[Gromit]

I'm not sure the public has much of an appetite for another coalition.

Wilson famously called a second election in 1974, and won more seats. In 2010, Cameron had that option but chickened out. I don't think many people think the Coalition has been success. If the election does not give a clear result in May, and it is Miliband's call, I'm sure he will call another election in October/November.