No Labour No!

LABOUR SHOULD NOT GO INTO A COALITION WIITH THE LIB DEMS

Because...

1. it is rewarding a party who, despite doing even worse in this election, gets to call all the shots
2. the coalition will not be able to last and it will be so haphazard that it will make labour look desperate, look bad, and look weak (esp since the coalition relies on so many other political parties before making an absolute majority)
3. a new election is going to be called anyway, so labour should use this time to regroup while teh conservatives undertake unpopular measures to cut the budget deficit immediately (not a good idea btw...labour's proposal on tackling teh deficit was better); and come back stronger in time for the new re-elections
4. the tories can very persuasively argue that the lib-lab alliance is a "party of the losers" and does not express the popular will---> note: this can be argued both ways, with labour saying the constitution allows the incumbent party, in teh event of a hung parliament, to seek to form a coalition first

On the other hand, there are reasons as to why Labour might want to go into a coalition, despite my arguments against it

Because...

1. they sincerely believe that it is in the national interest to stay on cos Tory cuts on the budget deficit might seriously hamper the still fragile british economic recovery
2. it so happens that this protecting of the "national interest" also coincides with a chance for them to stay on in power i.e. not being in the political wilderness for 5 years
3. electoral reform is something that labour has also argued for (though much more halfheartedly than the lib dems); and by choosing to have a referendum, labour can show themselves to be "progressive" on this issue
4. labour has the benefit of appearing to be progressive, yet since it is a referendum, it does not automatically mean the lib dems will win the referendum on electoral reform (hence labour can still benefit from the "first past the post" system); and if the referendum fails to deliver lib dem's preferred outcome, Labour can still maintain it's progressive stance by appearing to be the party of "hey, at least we tried reform"

Xoxo and God bless