Tying Up Loose Ends

For me, it's putting the suitcases away and doing the washing after our holiday.

For the country it's the election finally playing out and giving us a Conservative / Liberal Democrat Coalition. Watching the process of a government emerging, I've seen it described as a mess and an embarrassment. I think it is the opposite. I think it is the start of a new type of democracy emerging across the UK, and I can't imagine anything more exciting. Our coalition governments in Scotland have done some good work, and in much of the world coalitions are commonplace, if not the norm. If this coalition works, reform of the first-past-the-post system seems likely, which would probably perpetuate coalition politics at UK level - one of the biggest changes in our parliament in over a century. A change I think is much needed to restore public interest and confidence in government.

David Cameron has the opportunity to lead at a time when we need leadership. If he can demonstrate integrity and compromise in office, he will greatly enhance the credibility of his party.

Some say Nick Clegg has sold out - to me he has seized the opportunity presented to him and succeeded in getting some of his policy priorities onto the agenda.

Gordon Brown - much maligned but in my book guilty of little more than lack of soft skills - has had the sense to step aside with dignity, perhaps saving his party from years in the electoral wilderness.

I'm quite centrist in my views maybe a little more right than left but not much - which is why I don't often have much to say about politics. What excites me isn't the change from Labour to Conservative, it's the opportunity to see a better form of democracy and government emerge, and some real debate about important issues based on principles rather than party dogma.

Whatever emerges, the next few months should look a little different to the last few decades, and I hope that it will lead a sea change in politics in this country. Perhaps this "mess" will one day be looked back on as one of the finer moments in UK politics...

Right, I'm off back to the washing!