Leader: Saturday

May 8 2010 by simon halewood, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THE General Election may be over – or is this perhaps just the start of a long run-up to another one.

The inconclusive result is full of twists and turns and the coming days and weeks will be very interesting for those fascinated by politics. It is a classic case of history in the making.

After all, everything is now up in the air and the party that had, arguably, the most disappointing result is now the kingmaker. They are in a powerful position.

The Lib Dems were hoping for a fantastic vote in the aftermath of Nick Clegg’s success in the televised leaders debates and promising polls.

But that only translated into just 57 seats – amazingly down five on the previous General Election – but still enough to put them in the linchpin role.

This must be what the party has been hoping would happen for many years. They are right in the heart of politics – and if that heart keeps pumping or not could be all down to them.

Both the Conservatives and Labour are both trying to woo them with Labour offering a referendum on what Gordon Brown says is “a fairer voting system’’ while David Cameron is putting less on that particular table suggesting he would set up an all-party committee of inquiry to look at changing the current first past the post system.

It’s all rather unseemly as they scrabble to try to cling on to power or to seize it which is, of course, great for the media.

But this country is in dire straits. Politicians have talked about the common good. Now is the time to show it and to work together to make sure this country continues to climb out of the deepest economic recession for decades.

It’s time to find out if those were just empty words or a genuine commitment to show flexibility and the ability to make all-important concessions to create strong, workable polices which are for the good of the country and not themselves.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man – or possibly two or three men working together.

Failing that, we will have the spectre of them squabbling among themselves and the growing fear the country will slip back into a recession that could become an abyss.