Only one thing, as far as I can see, and that is staying in government, for they are not exactly in power. With all the problems this country faces, the House of Commons is debating the Fixed Term Parliament Bill that its own Select Committee considers to be "unnecessarily rushed" and one that raises a number of legal and constitutional questions.
We have already had attempts to muzzle the 1922 Committee and, undoubtedly, there will be legislation to ensure that votes of no confidence become as difficult to pass as possible. All to the greater good of keeping the Cleggerons in government for many more years. And just to make sure that nothing interferes with that plan, they are proposing to postpone the next Queen's Speech, due in a year's time till spring 2012 so that sessions do not come to an end before every bit of planned legislation is pushed through.
On the whole, I am not a fan of Denis MacShane's but I do agree that this constitutes a major power grab for the sake of "a smooth transition to a new system of fixed-term Parliaments, when general elections would take place every five years". Whenever I hear of any proposals for a smoother running of government I start wondering whether I should take up an offer made to me by a Texan friend to go over and learn to shoot. The smooth running of government is not a desideratum in a free society. Mind you, I cannot understand why they want to grab all this power over the electoral cycle and the running of Parliament - they have given away powers to legislate to the EU.
So now a long parliament,we await the return of cromwell with eager anticipation.
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