The sun is shining on the new coalition government, and love is in the air. The Cameron/Clegg affair may have shocked large parts of their own parties, but it has mesmerised the press. The question is: how long will it last.

Even in defeat, the Labour Party should not ignore the huge benefits of this electoral outcome. The electorate stuck two fingers up to all the major parties by effectively delivering a "none of the above" outcome. The only choices left were a minority government or a coalition. Thank goodness Labour was unable to come to any agreement with the Lib Dems and minority parties. We would never have escaped the "government of the losers" jibe. Nor would it have forced Labour to look at how far to the right it had drifted.

The current coalition has given Cameron a majority he could never have dreamed of. Had the electorate returned 57 extra Tory MPs, rather than the Lib Dems, Cameron would not have lasted a year. A Tory 57 would have swollen the right wing ranks of the barking mad within their party. They would have been made up of the sort of fundamentalists so beloved of the Turnip Taliban who still form the party's membership base. Cameron's touchy-feely coalition would have been dead in the water.

There will be plenty of opportunities to heap criticism on the Government. We should begin, however, with things to be thankful for. The Lib Dems have certainly pitched in with tax changes that will lift the poorest out of taxation altogether. The coalition has scored some easy gains by dumping an array of Labour policies which were a disgrace. They will continue to do so in repealing aspects of Labour's domestic legislation, which have been illiberal and controlling. They will be the parties who have to take the critisism for cuts that Labour would have inflicted anyway. The coalition may actually bring forth policies to the left of New Labour, putting the final nails in its coffin.

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