Infamy, Infamy. They've All Got It In For Me.

The first round of "Britain's Got Elections - The PM factor", has seen an astounding rise in the fortunes of the Liberals, based solely on the performance of Nick Clegg. From being the subject of love-bombing by both other candidates, the rise of the Liberals means that Clegg is now being lined up for becoming the target. Even the media are starting to give the Liberals a harder time, instead of treating them as being like some inoffensive relative who normally sits quietly in the corner, and who no one either listens to, or wants to upset. Its about time, because anyone who has seen the effects of Liberal Government where they have been in power in Local Government, often in coalition with backwoods Tories, knows that they are far from being inoffensive or harmless.

The irony is that, because of Britain's undemocratic First Past The Post System, the rise of the Liberals is benefitting Labour, even as it has ssen its standing fall to third place. As Cameron had based most of his campaign on an Obamaesque idea of "Change", including the vagueness of exactly what this change was a change to, the emergence of Clegg, as supposedly something "new", has cut the legs from under the Tories strategy. The Tories are scrabbling to adjust. They are in acleft stick. If they come out and attack Clegg too vociferously, as some of their rank and file are demanding, they will inevitably have to do so by striking a harder, more right-wing pose, allowing their persona as the "nasty party" to shine through. But, the Liberals are not only shoring up their own seats, depriving the Tories of potential seats in the South-West, but they are taking votes away rom the Tories where they could have been challenging in Labour Marginals. There are not enough seats hat the Liberals could take from Labour that would counteract this. No wonder that Labour politicians have been looking smug in the last few days. As Ed Balls said on one show, their best tactic at the moment is to sit back, and let the Tories attack the Liberals.

On the present polls, the analysis suggests that Labour could emerge as the biggest Party with around 250-300 seats, and with the Liberals on 100. You see if you'd put £10 on Labour To Win at 5-1, you'd be looking at picking up £50.