Hung Parliament talks: what will be proposed to Monday’s meetings?

The Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party and the Federal Executive are scheduled to meet again on Monday. If a firm proposal is coming out from the talks today, expect it to be put to them both tomorrow. The big question is what might be proposed…?

Right across the party, both from senior to grassroots levels and from social through to economic liberals, there is very strong feeling that significant movements on electoral reform are a must for any arrangement. Given the country’s current economic woes, there is widespread agreement that PR isn’t the only issue at stake, but – for example – I’ve not spoken to anyone in the party who thinks the budget deficit is such a dominating issue that PR can be put on the back-burner for a few years.

Despite the understandable disappointment at how the general election results panned out in the end, there is considerable goodwill in the party towards Nick Clegg and the negotiating team – willing to trust them to do their best and in the right cause in the necessarily private meetings and discussions.

Doubt over the Conservative Party’s willingness to make meaningful concessions on electoral systems is tempered by distrust of Labour’s record at making and breaking promises over changing the electoral system for the Commons. Certainly many of the Labour figures speaking out in the media do not seem to have grasped the fact that if they want to persuade Liberal Democrats they are sincere a little more humility about their previous broken promises and a little less of the “if you’re not really a Tory in disguise you MUST agree with us” would be wise. And as for why Gordon Brown thought it sensible to repeatedly get the party’s name wrong in his public comments…

Jonathan Calder has also picked up on another of these baffling attitudes from Labour:

An arrangement between Labour and the Liberal Democrats would have to be expanded to command a majority.

So how does Labour treat the smaller parties?

Earlier today Alex Salmond, the leader of the SNP, called on the Lib Dems to join a “progressive alliance” involving Labour, his party and Plaid Cymru as an alternative to a deal with the Tories.

In reply, Labour issued a statement saying they were not in discussion with the SNP and describing the initiative as “a desperate attempt by Alex Salmond to make himself look relevant”.

As Peter Hoskin says: “Well, that may or may not be true. But given how the Labour leadership has all the cards stacked against it, it wouldn’t hurt them to be a little more circumspect over the next few days.”

I know it can be hard from people from one party to understand the nuances of the internal politics of another party (don’t ask me for an expert insight into what Liam Fox thought he was doing going on TV trashing the idea that electoral reform matters and then subsequently back-tracking), but it is all rather baffling.