Imagine an election organised like our discussion of it. Instead of voting for a party, imagine we are confronted instead with a ballot paper that described the various possible governments. This is, in effect, the substance of the Conservative campaign which is an attempt to merge the Labour party and the Scottish National Party. In circumstances in which nobody can win, the campaign is becoming a discussion of which vexed combination will emerge after May 7.
There was even a time, distant though it now seems, when the prospect was raised that the coalition might fight in 2015 as a single entity. In 1918, those Liberals who had supported the wartime coalition were issued with a letter of support, known as “the coupon” signed by