He had to go. He did it well. But there was no other way. Let's not pretend this is an elegant departure of his own volition in the interests of the country. Gordon Brown lost an election that might have been won outright had he only departed sooner. No good grace now can erase the catastrophic mistake the man has made in so over-reaching his political skills and talents. Should there be pity and generosity for him now in his leaving? For all those years he plotted, planned, schemed and wrought havoc on his party in his single-minded determination to seize the crown he was not equipped to wear – though he had gifts and virtues too. But there will be time enough on many a long winter evening to ponder the dark and strange character of Gordon Brown when he is gone.
Right now, everything hangs in the balance. This is the moment of truth when finally and irreversibly the Liberal Democrats have to define themselves, something they have for so long avoided. Whose side are they really on? The establishment has leaned heavily on the Lib Dems to suggest that they have no such choice but must put into power the party with most seats. The bombast of a rightwing press is doing its damnedest to dragoon them into putting Cameron into Downing Street, by threatening the wrath of the people. The question now is whether Lib Dem leaders have the intellectual, political and moral fibre to resist bogus claims that "legitimacy" obliges them to favour the Conservatives.
The Lib Dem leadership must not be spooked by an inauthentic view of legitimacy. Nick Clegg knows full well from his European experience – where coalition-building of every kind is the everyday norm – that legitimacy falls on whatever grouping can command enough votes in a parliament to form a government. That is often not the party that happens on its own to have more seats than any other, while still failing to represent the majority sentiment in a country. After all these years of advocating pluralism, the Lib Dems will surely not be trapped by old first-past-the-post thinking that "strong and stable government" must be the least plural.
True legitimacy resides in a coalition of principle between the parties that stood for election on the most closely shared values. Their voters are the ones that confer legitimacy. Most who voted Lib Dem would feel the deal illegitimate if they found their vote diverted into the Cameron camp. Lib-Con may work locally, but never nationally. The Lib Dem manifesto has almost nothing in common with Conservatism, nor with what Nick Clegg rightly called the "nutters" among the Tories' EU partners. Cameron's marriage bonus, the inheritance tax gift to the richest, Trident, shrinking Sure Start, and an austerity budget cutting £6bn from the fragile recovery within 50 days – these are not the principles Lib Dem voters chose. But tax reform to help the lower paid, closing tax loopholes for the rich, and electoral reform are core radical Lib Dem policies that they cannot legitimately abandon.
According to Ben Page of Ipsos Mori, the greater part of Lib Dem voters lean towards Labour, with only 22% leaning toward the Conservatives. That makes an alliance with Labour the more legitimate, as well as the expedient, choice. Turning to Cameron would mean quick death at the next election. Once the deal was done, the Lib Dems would soon be mangled, trampled and jettisoned. The Tories would trap the Lib Dems, who would fear being held responsible for bringing the government down. Nick Clegg would find himself with about as much influence as Tony Blair had in Washington once he had signed up in blood to the Iraq war, poodles both.
With Gordon Brown gone and a new Labour leader installed, the fear of "illegitimacy" will be doubled. No doubt the Tory press will hammer on about another "unelected" prime minister – but prime ministers are not elected, they are not presidents. Legitimacy springs from the clear case that Britain is not a Conservative country. It has become an essentially social democratic one since the Tories last won in 1992.
Any doubt about that was laid to rest in last week's election. If Conservatism cannot win a majority under dream circumstances with every fair wind blowing in its favour, it has become a minority rump belief in British life. Labour was on its knees with a singularly disliked leader. Cameron was better by far than the Tories' last four leaders, astute in trying to adapt his party to changed times. The crash and its aftermath have unseated governments everywhere, and Labour was partly blamed. The Conservatives outspent the other parties by millions, sending Lord Ashcroft's gilded missiles into the marginals. After 13 years, it really did feel like time for a change. So for Cameron to win a meagre 36% of the vote was a phenomenal failure. Not a failure of Cameron's personally, nor of his campaign. The Conservatives were beaten because this is no longer a Conservative country.
Here at last is the historic chance to heal the pointless rift between two near-identical progressive parties, divided only by history, tradition and a rotten voting system. Clegg would badly misread the mood of this country if he opted for the Conservatives now – despite their "final" AV offer late today.
The Labour offer laid before the Lib Dems is, instead, a coalition of equals, forming a government under a new leader, together with the SDLP, Plaid Cymru, SNP and others. The conventional British view is that a multiparty coalition would be unstable, but that's how most of Europe is governed. It would be in none of their like-minded interests to bring down this coalition government. There are few Labour policies that would not be negotiable under a fresh leader, able to think anew about everything. Who would be there to die in a ditch for ID cards or 28-day detention?
Elections change everything – that's what they are for. A radical blend of reform to the tax system, a splitting of the banks between casino and retail, positive towards Europe, protective towards services for the vulnerable, creating financial stability in the joint council with all parties that the Lib Dems propose – why not? Above all, real electoral reform. The days of triangulating would be over, and each party would improve the other. Suddenly everything looks possible. Not easy, but a legitimate coalition of the voters' expressed wishes