It's what they do

The airwaves have had several people whingeing and whining that the coalition is, ‘not what they voted for.’ As the excellent Muriel Grey put it in her article in this mornings Sunday Herald, “People are reacting to this election as if casting a vote is like ordering up a purchase, as if a mark on a ballot paper buys you your own tailor-made, bespoke society."

"But a political party’s manifesto is not a catalogue that you pick a sofa from. It’s a process that begins with intentions and promises, and ideally a strong overreaching philosophy, but then inevitably has to bend to events and respond to public ­reaction. Given that hard truth, it seems absurd to assume anything concrete about our new pick-and-mix administration. It’s not just the coalition government which will be forced to compromise. Everyone will.”

She then spells it out succinctly, “Here’s what politicians do. They try to get into power, and then when they do, they try to stay there. That’s it folks. Being disappointed that Clegg is now slapping backs with people it was previously his job to insult, undermine and attack, is like being disappointed that a lion has eaten a zebra.”