Timeline: Deal that never was
The chronology (so far) of the Lib Lab deal that never happened. I await extra details with interest.
β’ MONDAY LUNCHTIME:
Ming Campbell is invited to meet Gordon Brown. Brown makes a surprise offer of junior ministerial jobs for a handful of Lib Dem peers - thought to include Lord Ashdown, Lord Lester, Baroness Neuberger and Lord Carlile. Ming says that he needs to think about it. Another meeting is planned for the following day
β’ MONDAY AFTERNOON:
Ming discuses the offer with his Chief of Staff Ed Davey and his friend and fixer Lord (Archie) Kirkwood. They say that they decided to turn down the offer. They agree that Kirkwood will act as Lib Dem point man liaising with Gordon Brown's friend, and likely successor as Chancellor, Alastair Darling.
Later Paddy Ashdown finds a pink note in his House of Lords message box inviting him to call Gordon Brown's office to fix a meeting. This is fixed for Wednesday. Ashdown sees his party leader to discuss. They agree that Ashdown should not take a ministerial job but should go ahead and see Brown in case he has another offer to make
β’ TUESDAY:
The second Ming/Gordon meeting is cancelled due to diary pressures.
β’ WEDNESDAY MORNING:
The Guardian splash on a report that the Lib Dems will be offered Cabinet posts. The report is written mysteriously by a "staff reporter" thus hiding the identity of the journalist given the story and masking its possible source. All sides vehemently deny that they were behind it.
The paper speculates that two MPs - Nick Clegg and Vince Cable may be invited to join the Cabinet. Clegg and Cable are taken by complete surprise having known nothing about Brown's offer to their leader. Faced by a furious reaction from within his own party Ming Campbell tells the ΄σΟσ΄«Γ½ that no Lib Dem will serve in a Brown government.
β’ WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON:
Paddy Ashdown has his planned meeting with Gordon Brown at which he is offered the post of Northern Ireland Secretary. He tells Brown that as an old soldier he always follows the orders of his commanding officer. He adds that even if Ming Campbell had thought it a good idea, he did not.
β’ THURSDAY:
The ΄σΟσ΄«Γ½ reveal the offer of a Cabinet job to Ashdown. Recriminations begin. Any prospect of a deal is off.
I'm 
Comments
I thought this week it was βTake Your Daughters to Work Dayβ. It turns out that Gordon was a little confused and thought it was βTake Your Elderly Lib Dem Grandparents to Work Dayβ.
Perhaps it would be handy for a few Lib Dems to get some work experience of being a cabinet minister for a morning. Perhaps people might finally start to imagine that a Lib Dem could be capable of being in government.
I just know that when my teenage daughter comes into my work Iβm not going to let her do anything too serious without close supervision. And I know that when its all over weβll be back to slamming doors and sulking. hmmmm.
Nick queries - audacious or inept.
As a fully paid up member of the general public, you know, those folk whom politicians love to push around (and spend their money), I would say - neither audacious or inept.
Merely deeply cynical.
Brown knows that NL will be hanging on by their fingertips at the next General Election and may need the Lib-Dems to help out.
Politics, as conventionally practised, is such a grotesque game to us outsiders - the general public/victims.
Much has been made in the media lately about the spread of coalition-talk into England, making this phenomenon (or should that be disease?) rife in the United Kingdom. ΄σΟσ΄«Γ½ News today talks about the possibility of Lord Ashdown being made an offer of Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister.
Let me get this straight, first Rhodri Morgan publicly backs Harriet Harman in her bid to become Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, a position that Peter Hain is running for, and now Gordon is mischief-making in 'offering' Peter Hain's current job to a Liberal Democrat.
Is Gordon confident that Peter will get the job of Deputy Dog of the Labour party or he is trying to say (among other things) that he's 'none too fond' of our very own two-job Secretary of State for Wales?
Makes you wonder!
I may be missing something, but what benefit would a Labour/Lib-Dem coalition be to Brown?
Does he expect plenty of revolts from Blairite MPs and so the effective loss of his party's majority?
Does this show that Mr Brown feels that the Labour benches have such a paucity of talent he has to look elsewhere?
Offering a job to Paddy Ashdown just proves what we have all known for years - that Labour do not have people of the calibre required for high office
What's your opinion on all this, Nick? Why did Brown make the offer, and should Lord Ashdown have taken it (assuming he had permission from Ming Campbell)?
Nick
So much for a clean new approach to government. Gordon Brown, not yet PM, is doing slimy deals, leaking and spinning, and stabbing people in the back. What a ghastly prospect we have until the next general election.
So it is official. Gordon Brown looked around the membership of the New Labour Party and decided there was no one good enough for a junior ministerial job in a New Labour Government and decided to offer it to Lord Ashdown - a Liberal Democrat.
What next? Will David Cameron be offered the job of Deputy Prime Minister?
One wonders what the New Labour MPs are thinking.
So the media have put a stop to what could have been a really useful collaborative effort.
Nice work.
Fascinating developments.
I suspect the source of the original leaks to both The Guardian and ΄σΟσ΄«Γ½ is someone who wanted to scupper anything like this happening.
My money is on a disgruntled Lib Dem close to Ming.
I think, the Liberal Democrat decision has nothing to do with reason and cooperation, and everything to do with suspicion and self-interest. I'm familiar with that reaction from personal experience. Some people are so damaged or so full of themselves they lose the plot when someone makes a sincere and open effort to positively develop a situation.
In my own city, the Liberal Democrats like to paint a bright and sharing leadership. In reality, their policy substance and political savvy is pretty thin. I can give examples where massive fraud took place, statute and regulation was arbitrarily broken, and individuals failed to live up to their own parties ethos. Them's the facts. Say it ain't so.
As Nick comments, policies and personalities are important. My own take is that soundness of action and relations are key. Contrasting this with the hollow bravery behind beating of the false prospectus drum suggests Ming Campbell et all have some soul searching to do. This latest lack of performance shows lack of insight and cowardice. Burn baby, burn.
Wake me up when the Liberal Democrats get some Cluetrain.
Call me cynical, but this smacks more to me of undermining potential anti-Labour coalitions in the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly
Almost seems designed by Brown to drive the Lib Dems towards the Tories in the event of a hung parliament...
Inept spinning, because although he's caused upset betwen Lib Dems and their leader in the short term, he's lost a possible coalition partner in the long term and assisted the Tories in that regard.
Thanks, Great Clunking Fist!
Almost seems designed by Brown to drive the Lib Dems towards the Tories in the event of a hung parliament...
Inept spinning, because although he's caused upset betwen Lib Dems and their leader in the short term, he's lost a possible coalition partner in the long term and assisted the Tories in that regard.
Thanks, Great Clunking Fist!
I was puzzled to hear Nick's analysis on Today that the deal had 'fallen through'. Of course it hadn't.
It was proposed without any great expectation that it would be accepted, in the knowledge that it was a win-win situation for Brown.
He is left portrayed as generous and open-minded but thwarted by the small-mindedness of the Lib Dems.
It was a supremely clever move which helps to re-establish a claim to the centre ground without having to expend an ounce of political capital.
If Ming had an ounce of political sense he would have laid down a series of innocuous-sounding but totally unacceptable conditions and then have spent the next few days adopting a tone of hurt innocence. As it is he is left puffing self-importantly but irrelevantly on the sidelines. And we have all been cleverly reminded that there is no chance of the Lib Dems having any effect whatsoever on national politics - even when offered the chance to do so they turn it down - so that there is no point in voting for them.
Brilliant - I never thought Gordon was that cunning.
Is Brown in hiding? Most definitely!
I feel sorry for English people as they are about to get a leader who has absolutely no scruples and does not take responsibility for his actions.
Brown would sell both his soul and nation to gain power, example, since his accession to TB has been evident these past two years he has quite happily sold Scotland down the river and found an inspiration in accentuating his Britishness. In Scotland this has made him look foolish and his party cringe. As we say his Scottish accent has disappeared like snow off a dyke.
Is this the kind of man you'd like to negotiate in the EU for England? Bet you prefer Alec Salmond as a leader, he takes repsonsibility, fights for whatβs right and will not ditch his principals to win power!
Donnie McCool, Ardrisaig, Scotland
So the Guardian has the story leaked to it and so much for a new era without spin with Gordo Broon.
A leopard cannot change it's spots and NuLabour cannot stop spinning.
Looks like game set and match to Gordon Brown already and the election campaign's not even started yet. He didn't get to where he is today without being pretty astute...
FRIDAY: Gordon brown offers ΄σΟσ΄«Γ½ journalist Nick Robinson a most in the new government...
I still don't understand what Brown has to gain from a pre-election Lib/Lab "coalition". The only thing could be that there aren't enough talented Labour MPs to fill the ministerial positions... Which can't be true given the sheer number of Labour MPs.
The only motivation surely is knowing that the LibDems would turn it down making Brown look magnanimous and possibly undermining the LD vote at the next election.
The Lib-Dems and their voters are starting to look rather like Poland in 1939, sandwiched between two aggressive powers each wanting to carve off a huge slice.
It's being repeated again & again... VOTE LIB DEM ..GET New LABOUR... will the electorate never learn.
Was a pleasant surprise to have the facts behind the story instead of waiting for politicians' memoirs years later.
An offer the LibDems dared refused to their enduring cost.
Moral of this story being: Beware of Gordon Brown's invitations to dinner - you may end up on the menu.
By the way where is Gord?
Methinks Macavity is around - somewhere!
Maybe I'm missing the whole point here, but the purpose of a prime minister is to lead the country. Therefore, I choose the political party at election time because I believe their leader is the best person for this role
Therefore, he (the PM) needs to pick what he believes is the best person for each role he has to fill. If he believes that's someone from another party, another country, the moon, does it really matter?
Having the best person is much more important than having a politically correct person
Brown is doing this beautifully. Lib Dems have turned from toast into soldiers for dunking.
I believe that the first denials were re any "Lib Dem MP" allowing a peer to take the shilling.
Ming may yet cross the floor for a decent job. But the Lib Dems are certainly being destroyed and that is good for Labour.
Gordon Brown decision to offer Lord Ashdown the post of Northern Ireland Secretary is an interesting gambit. It comes at a time when the Liberal Democrats are revisiting their ideological conscience. Social and Economic Liberals have been busy publishing books and pamphlets extolling the virtues of their alternate visions of the state in a modern "liberal" society. Could it be that Gordon Brown is eager to become a participant in this debate? The truth is probably much more mundane. His intervention is designed to exacerbate any pre-existing tensions within the Lib-Dems and act as a useful political marker in the event of a "hung parliament".
I don't like Tory policies ... suffered enough in the 80s & 90s. NEVER to want to see them back. But, a democrat has to look at what the electorate seems to want.
At the time of the first 1974 election (History, yawn) I was heavily involved, and I and many other Liberals were in favour of a Lib/Lab coalition. Now, as Labour's hold on the electorate wanes, I'm not.
Reason. In 1974 whoever had won the election one thing was clear. The Tories had lost. Same thing now. Whoever is winning the argument/likely to increase seats at the next General Election it isn't Labour.
That's the reason I think the LibDems in Wales and Scotland were right to take the positions they did. In Scotland, Labour lost ground, LibDems stood still. Not an argument for LibDems continuing to help Labour to stay in power.
Same in Wales. Labour lost a lot of ground. Again LibDems stood still. Good argument for not propping up what was in effect a defeated Labour administration.
Bad timing, Gordon. Sensible decision, Ming!
I don't like Tory policies or politicians... suffered enough in the 80s & 90s. NEVER to want to see them back. But, a democrat has to look at what the electorate seems to want.
At the time of the first 1974 election (History, yawn) I was heavily involved, and I and many other Liberals were in favour of a Lib/Lab coalition. Now, as Labour's hold on the electorate wanes, I'm not.
Reason. In 1974 whoever had won the election one thing was clear. The Tories had lost. Same thing now. Whoever is winning the argument/likely to increase seats at the next General Election it isn't Labour.
That's the reason I think the LibDems in Wales and Scotland were right to take the positions they did. In Scotland, Labour lost ground, LibDems stood still. Not an argument for LibDems continuing to help Labour to stay in power.
Same in Wales. Labour lost a lot of ground. Again LibDems stood still. Good argument for not propping up what was in effect a defeated Labour administration.
Bad timing, Gordon. Sensible decision, Ming!
Can all the doomsayers and cynics who have commented explain why Ming would contemplate such a deal? There is absolutely no reason or possible advantage in the Lib Dems associating with this deeply tarnished government.
Ming is no fool and he would only agree to something which would benefit the LDs - the party he leads. He would gain nothing by crossing the floor himself.
And Donnie, Scotland is welcome to keep Alex Salmond as long as it wants. If you want cynicism, he offers a masterclass.
This is a variation on a well known theme. Instead of an offer they can't refuse, Gordon Brown makes an offer they can't accept. From stealth taxes to stealth cynicism.
Nick
This looks like a variation on a old theme. Instead of "an offer they can't refuse', Gordon has made an offer they can't accept.
Gordon has moved on. From stealth taxes to stealth cynicism
I am glad to see that these LibDems have principles and are not going to leave their Flat Earth Society after all.
Gordon Brown wants to find someone in his cabinet outside his own government, that is just a joke. It means noone within the government can do a better job than someone in the Lib Dems or Tory. He must be thinking his government is not as strong as 10 years ago. To be really honest, I can't find anyone wintin the Labour party to succeed Gordon Brown as the Chancellor, maybe Jack Straw becomes Foreign Secretary or Home Secretary. I'm 100% certain he won't take Charles Clarke nor David Blunkett back to his cabinet.