The offer from David Cameron on Friday did not seem like much of an offer to me.  I heard Michael Portillo saying on TV today that he thought it was such a good offer that the Lib-dems would not be able to believe it.  I must say I feel he must be living on another planet.  The only offer was to point out where we agree, but I struggle to see this as an offer, as if the Conservatives agree on these points, I would assume they will be doing them with or without Lib-dems, as long as they are able to form a government. 

The offer for an all party committee of inquiry on electoral reform is an insult to the concept of political reform and in my mind framed to make it look like the Concervaties are trying to build consensus when in fact they are making an offer they know the Lib-dems cannot accept to make their real ambition of a minority government seem like something they will have to do as no one else is able to put political interests aside.

Hopefully this is just the starting point of the negotiations and that a positive, stable government can be formed.  A Conservative and Lib-dem coalition would be the most stable outcome and with this in mind I really hope agreement can be reached, but if the Conservatives decide to take a tough line that only offers the Lib-dems the opportunity to help enact the Conservative policies that they agree on it just will not happen.   The conservative party have to offer some form of incentive for the Lib-dems to be able to say they are making Britain a fairer country in a way that the Conservative party alone would not have done.

As an absolute minimum this must be reform of the tax system and reform of the House of Lords to make the House of Lords a fully elected, fully proportional chamber.  With the present number of Lib-dem MPs I worry that other than tempering the haste of Conservative cuts this is the best the Lib-dems will be able to achieve for Britain in a Conservative coalition, but is still far better than keeping Gordon Brown in power.