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All it does is send out a signal that if you're planning to vote Lib Dem you may as well just vote Labour. Charlie Kennedy would never have got himself caught in Brown's web. Ming the useless strikes again.

Would it be scurrilous to suggest that the primary motivation is that too few Labour MPs could stomach being in the same room as Gordon Brown long enough to make up a complete Cabinet...?

*ducks & runs*

There will be no Lib Dem MPs in the Brown Cabinet as long as Ming wants to keep his party united and remain its leader. When will the two old parties learn that the Lib Dems are different and that we are challenging them both, not jumping into a coalition with either.

However, Lib Dems have always been content to work with governments of any stripe, so Ashdown helping Labour out of Blair's Legacy is entirely feasible.

Nick,
It's more to do with Brown's fear of being wiped out at the next election!

This is clearly the work of Brown spinners at work.

There is no appetite for doing a deal with Labour in the Lib Dem Parliamentary party or the wider party. It would be political suicide and Ming knows it.

I think talk about a "coalition" is a red herring. However, if Gordon Brown appointed Paddy Ashdown as Foreign Secretary it would be a clear signal that he wants to lead a new grown up eara politics.

I fail to understand why Mr Robinson spent time writing this blog, does he not realise that there real political stories out there, or is it that Conservative Party HQ has not told him about them.

Frankly I don't expect to see Lib-Dem MPs in Gordon Brown's Cabinet for all the reasons (and more) mentioned by your other contributors to this blog. Having said that, I for one would admire any Prime Minister willing to consider harnessing the talents of those who clearly hold affiliations to another political party, but would be invaluable to the UK and beyond.
Seb Coe (Tory to the core) seems to be making a fine job of leading the Olympic 2012 project.
Paddy Ashdown (Ex-leader of the Lib-Dems) is an internationally respected individual and has much to offer any government.
OK, so any PM would need to accept a lot of Tweedledum vs Tweedledee criticism from the opposition benches, but strong PMs take that in their stride, and the electorate appreciate good governance (media wiling).

The big secret of the 1997 election was Blair's meticulous and highly-secret negotiations with Ashdown around Ashdown and Ming joining the Labour cabinet as part of a coalition government with the LibDems. PR was also promised as part of the negotiations.
Labour won a landslide and hardly needed LibDem support, so true to future form, Tony forgot his promises and ditched the LibDems.
The point is that in case of electoral peril for Labour, Labour and the LibDems negotiate. With a resurgent Tory party, is anyone surprised that this sequence from 1997 is repeating itself? It also demonstrates four things:
1) A Tory / Lib-Dem coalition is pie-in-the-sky with Ming in charge (it may be different with Clegg/Laws?)
2) Labour / Lib Dem "secret" negotiation will be a backdrop to the 2009/2010 election - vote LibDem and you really will get Labour
3) Unsurprisingly NuLabour will do anything to cling to power
4) Irrelevant of the electoral suicide this could be for the LibDems, the allure of a ministerial position at the end of a long and frankly pretty barren parliamentary career in the case of Ming, is strong.

I've still got the emails I sent to each of the three main parties before the general election, and the more specific policy emails I sent to my, then, Labour MP. It’s funny seeing the majority of things on my wish list unfold. This latest story doesn't surprise me. It’s consistent with Gordon Brown's personality type, and the policies and relationships that naturally flow from that. I have a similar personality type and point of view, hence the lack of surprise.

It wouldn't surprise me if Gordon Brown brought acknowledged specialists or people from both Liberal Democrat and Conservative parties into government. As long as everyone stays on the same page, I expect it would work very well though I expect anyone who tried to get too big for their boots or had served their purpose would be dropped in a heartbeat. The overall quality of output and opportunity for more to have a go should rise.

My personal hope is that this leadership dynamic will stimulate a more mindful focus on quality, relationships, calm, and endurance in government, business, and the media. These classic qualities the best of martial arts, spirituality, and management teaching are fundamental to success. With everyone on the same page the ship is more likely to be better able and more likely to get to port, and that's what the game is about in the final analysis.

And, no. It wouldn't surprise me if Gordon Brown is Prime Minister for life.

I disagree with some of the above comments that a lib dem vote may as well be a labour vote. LAbour and the lib dems have different principles and a coalition would have to take into account lib dem views and policies. Ming is hardly going to say he wants his MPs to be part of a brown cabinet is he- but as he said yesterday- he doesnt want to get bogged down talking about a coalition after the next election- the lib dems are a separate party and they are campaigning on a set of very distinctive policies. This George III style rhetoric from Brown about a govt of talents is complete nonsense. If we wanted a govt of talent they would all ave to be lib dems and I doubt Brown would like that!!

So Tony is stepping down next Weds (27 June), will Gordon be appointed as his successor on the same day? And, more interestingly, when will Gordon name his Cabinet and junior ministers? Presumably over the following days (Thurs and Fri 28 and 29 June)? Will he be tempted to tinker with the machinery of government? For example, abolishing the DTI - and moving energy to DEFRA and moving other policy areas to Treasury and Communities? Or will be axe Communities and DCMS? And put local government and culture under Cabinet Office? Or will DEFRA be scrapped, with environment and farming going to DTI - and rural and animals to Communities? Next week is going to be really exciting! Nick, please give us some guidance over timing of Gordon's announcements on the Cabinet etc

Nick, please would you give me some guidance on the timing of Gordon's announcement of his new Cabinet. Are looking at Thurs 28 June? The day after Tony steps down. Or will it drag on until Fri 29 June? Surely it has to be done before the weekend to end massive speculation in the Sunday papers. I guess that junior ministerial appointments will me announced gradually over the Friday and Saturday, as new Secretaries of State are consulted over their ministerial teams.

Also, do you think that Gordon will tinker with the machinery of government? In particular I'm thinking of vulnerable departments or ones disliked by Gordon, for example DTI, DEFRA, Communities and DCMS. Or is it too such to tinker, following the recent Home Office and DCA changes?

Nick
Surely this is a teaser, like all the others. To misquote Tom Lehrer:
"It's fun to patronise
the people you despise
so long as you don't let' em in your government."
I know it doesn't scan but nothing really does in politics.
The one use I found for Lib-Lab Pact (remember?) was that it was a useful phrase for our infants to try to get their tonghues round when learning to talk: the result was sort of blubbery, with rather a lot of drooling.

The idea that we would have lib-dem mp's in a labour cabinet is proposterous. Aside from the fact that this is Browns story leaked to the press (so much for the end of spin)to make him seem more willing to talk to other parties than Blair, if there were such an action the lib dems would split down the middle. Ming may be a closet labour supporter (who knows?) but a lot of his party isn't. There would a loss of lib dem activists (certainly me for a start)and how could lib dems join a government that is anti-liberal?

Answer: you can't. More of brown spin.

Can it be that Mr Brown is so worried about a Labour revolt he needs Liberal backing ? Could Gordon be planning a new tax regime ?

a coalition of the wailing?

When I heard about GB's move to 'offer' government posts to Lib Dems, I immediately thought of GB's last budget speech - specifically his dramatic delivery of the income tax rate changes.

So how did this news reach the public domain?

Spin appears to be alive and thriving under GB who, sadly, appears to want to be a better confidence trickster than TB - there's a challenge :)

You are correct Nick. Gordon Brown is a men that RESPECTS someone's tallent to make progress in this country no matter who that person might be. Everyone agress that Ashdown is the right person at the right time for N.Ireland. Unlike the old Menzies, (who fortunately will be ROMOVED soon), Gordon Brown will put the interest of the job at hand first, and then politics! In this way, Gordon Brown will win by results from the best available in UK and not through copying someone else's policies, like what Cameron is doing. Brown's leadership will be shown as being new, innovative and coherant with modern way of life.

It is a tragedy that no-one has asked the simple question; why not Ashdown?

He has had great success and experience in his international relations ventures and led the Liberal party for an impressive period of time; time that equates to around 10 years in a war zone. He is a statesman and he has a gravitas and personality that garners respect. For what has always been a difficult and generally bi-partisan post why has Ming Campbell decided to break his own claims to dislike partisan polictics? Have the needs of the Liberals suddenly become more important than the needs of Britain?

Isn't Paddy hurting Ming as much as Brown by announcing this? Perhaps a new campaign has started to oust the ageing leader from within?

Nick:

Is Brown really the class-act politician he's so often made out to be (especially, by his own party)?

Or a bungler whose strategies are very often transparent and inevitably come apart?

The answer has to be the latter: time and time again, he has sought to bury bad news / bad decision-making in the small print (and sometimes, even the non-print) of his Budget speeches.

And time and time again, his inept Machiavellianism has been exposed for what it is.

As the LibDems sensibly divined, this 'Cabinet Of All The Talents' had but one objective in mind: the political preservation of one flawed talent, Gordon Brown.

Brown knows that so great is the UK electorate's disaffection with Labour in particular and politics in general that the outcome of the next election will be either a Tory victory (so goodbye, Prime Minister Brown) or a Hung Parliament (so not much point in even being Prime Minister Brown.)

As a hung Parliament is the best that Labour can hope for, it planned to pre-empt the election outcome by taking steps towards coalition government on its own terms.

That way, it could present the outcome of the next election as a "triumph" of enlightened politics, a "victory" for Gordon Brown, and a "vindication" of Brown's recognition of the need for a "Government Of All The Talents" long before the electorate ever did.

How clever is that, huh?

Well, actually. . . Not at all.

Cynical, manipulative, and typical of New Labour strategic thinking, the ploy has also proved to be typical Brown in its outcome:

Yet another hilarious own goal.

Government by consensus with the most suitable people of whatever party as ministers would be a wonderful idea but hundreds of years of "Yah Boo" can't be set aside in a quick fix - and by only talking to one other party.

Darren suggests that Brown may be looking for a new grown up era in politics. If that is the case then Brown does well in finding the right person for the Northen Ireland job.
Northen Ireland deserves the right person and if Paddy didn't think he was up for it then fair enough, but good on you Gordon for trying.

Could they really sustain there positions for any considerable amount of time anyway?

How would Gordon Brown react if he had members of his Cabinet/Government openly criticising his policies, for instance -

Withdrawal from Iraq
Nuclear Power Stations
Trident
ID Cards

I for one do not think GB would tolerate a disunited front.

i think it's a terrible shame that these people can't find a way to work together for the good of the country and the people they are supposed to be there to serrve!