Don’t settle for yet another coalition

YESTERDAY delivered two more pieces of hugely positive economic news for David Cameron.

First, business leaders at the CBI increased their growth forecasts for both this year and next.

Then it emerged that, since the election, three times more jobs have been created by private enterprise than have been shed in the taxpayer-funded public sector – demolishing Labour’s claim that this vital re-balancing of the economy was impossible. Ed Miliband, meanwhile, looks weaker than ever, as Labour backbenchers, party grandees and shadow cabinet members queue up to offer him endless and often contradictory ‘advice’ on how to halt his ratings slump.

How mystifying, then, that with events going so strongly in his favour, reports should emerge yesterday that Mr Cameron is planning for a second Coalition with the Liberal Democrats in 2015.

Seemingly, his intention is to draw up another power- sharing agreement, then allow his MPs to vote on it, so their hands are ‘dipped in blood’ and they will be less rebellious. Doubtless the Prime Minister’s aides would say that, with the electoral system rigged so heavily against the Tories, he is just being pragmatic about the likelihood of another hung Parliament.

Yet, strategically, this is a mistake which will infuriate the many Tory MPs who do not wish to even countenance the idea of spending five more years with deeply unpopular Lib Dem ‘ partners’ who are opposed to stricter border controls and reform of the EU and human rights law.

It’s also a gift for Ukip, which seeks to present Mr Cameron as a politician who does not represent traditional Tory values, so is relaxed about being constrained by the liberals. With Labour in a dreadful mess, the Tories should be focused ruthlessly on finding the policies to win office in 2015 outright.