³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

As we wait for the result of the AV referendum, commentators ponder the significance of the local and national assembly elections results coming through.

Ìý

The the Liberal Democrats some advice for difficult times:

"The councillors newly elected this morning have won themselves a miserable job - meting out the very harshest of those coalitional cuts that are coming so dangerously thick and fast. No local politician of any stripe is going to do everything they might like to for their population in this fix, and especially not since Britain's fiscal centralism blocks every theoretical escape. But when retrenchment is in train, it is more important than ever that town halls are run by people prepared to risk middle-class wrath to protect services for same poor people. After being dealt a horrendous hand in last year's election and binding themselves in with the Conservatives, the urgent question for the Lib Dems now is how they can now persuade electors they stand for something distinctive."

that Nick Clegg's "plight" is undeserved and because of "fickle" supporters:

"The timing of the referendum to coincide with local and regional elections also had a malign effect - although not in the way that was most feared. The problem was less that voters did not give the referendum the time of day than that they seem to have treated it as a referendum on the coalition rather than the electoral system. Although there was cross-party campaigning, the arguments quickly strayed into party political territory.
Ìý
"In the end, voters will have to judge whether the likely demise of electoral reform condemns Nick Clegg and the whole of the Liberal Democrats' venture into coalition."

that, irrespective of the referendum's result, David Cameron and Nick Clegg's inability to agree on AV has been damaging to both parties:

"When Cameron decided to move against Clegg to appease his own party, however, he didn't just weaken his deputy - he weakened himself. The in-fighting of recent weeks, and the suspicion it has engendered, will ensure it is the 'told-you-so' coalition-sceptics in both parties who emerge the stronger. Clegg remains hopeful that some good could yet come of it; that having spent much of the past year building up coalition credibility rather than protecting his party's identity, he can now spend more time talking up Lib Dem achievements. The danger is that both sides come to view coalition politics as a zero-sum game, believing that what is good for one partner must be bad for the other - a destructive mindset that can only benefit the Labour Party."

that voters should question their suspicions that politicians lied in the referendum campaigns:

"Even in a debate as fatuous as the one we have endured over the alternative vote (AV), the charge of lying should largely be withheld. The dubious claims on offer have either been calls of judgement or stories where only time will tell. I think the claim that AV would be good for the BNP is an invitation for the funny farm but I accept that people might be daft enough to think it true. It's hardly likely, either, that AV would have made MPs work harder but I don't suppose we will ever know for certain one way or the other..
Ìý
"This is the exacting standard that we have to apply with political truth. As with the law on insider dealing, the perpetrator has to know at the time that what they are saying is not true."

Looking at the Scottish Assembly elections, that wins in Scotland for the SNP are a serious threat to the United Kingdom staying united:

"Salmond has said he will hold a referendum on breaking up the United Kingdom towards the end of his new five-year term. However, he will now be under tremendous pressure from his party's fundamentalist wing to declare that this win is a mandate for an immediate vote on independence. And there will be others in his party who will insist that this victory is cause enough to begin negotiations at once on taking Scotland out of the Union."