“The next Prime Minister walking through that door will be me or Ed Miliband,” outgoing Prime Minister David Cameron declared in his last address outside 10 Downing Street after the formal dissolution of this Parliament. The choice before voters, he said, was between a Britain of “strong leadership to safeguard our national security as well as our economic security”, or one which risks “economic chaos” under a Labour government led by Mr. Miliband.
Mr. Cameron’s formal visit as Prime Minister to Buckingham Palace on Monday was the last before polling day on March 7. Though the election campaign started days ago, the next 38 days will see it accelerate in pace and intensity.
The uncertainty over the election outcome is reflected in the poll predictions that have shown the Conservative and Labour parties running virtually neck and neck for the better part of a year. Last week, after the first televised interview of Mr. Cameron and Mr. Miliband by Jeremy Paxman, a YouGov Sunday Times poll put Labour at 36 per cent in terms of projected vote share and the Conservatives at 32 per cent.
If the last coalition between the Conservatives and Liberal-Democrats was by and large stable, a future coalition is likely to be far less so. Not unlike the electoral experience in India, the smaller parties will play a decisive role in government formation. These include avowedly right-wing parties like the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), left-of-centre parties like the Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Green Party, and of course, the Liberal Democrats.