The coatpeg coalition

I've been a bit busy the last week turning 50 and celebrating my half century while at the same time watching the Mother of Democracies (their words, not mine) twist and turn. It seems the dust is beginning to settle, but for how long? I was pondering this while walking the dog through the early morning mist on Saturday and, somewhat bizarrely, it brought to mind woodwork lessons I had at school.

Being judged too dim for Latin lessons, I was assigned to woodwork instead. Big mistake, but never mind, it's all in the past. Anyway, one of the projects in woodwork was to design and make a coatpeg. This I did and then our long-suffering teacher, a real gent called Mr Jackson, mounted all the coatpegs on a long piece of wood so that we could compare them side by side. Mine looked as if it ought to be a coatpeg, it was on a plaque with a piece sticking out on which, in theory, you could hang a jacket. Mr Jackson then tested the capabilities of our hooks by the simple method of taking his own jacket and hanging it on each peg. I suspect you can see where this is leading. Sure enough, most coatpegs were more than adequate for the task, indeed some had so much bracing on them you could have hung a suit of armour on them. Then Mr Jackson reached mine, put the loop of his jacket over the little peg thingy on my coatpeg and let it take the weight. Or rather, watched his jacket fall to the floor as my coatpeg disintegrated.

What does this have to do with the Lib-Con Con-Dem whatever it's called coalition? Well my coatpeg was bodged up. Being an idle feckless type (Mr Jackson never complained, but I must have tested his patience) I just used nails to assemble the various bits of wood until they resembled a coatpeg. Clearly such a method was entirely unsuitable for the task and the whole thing fell apart. I know it's obvious where this coatpeg metaphor is going, but I have to admit that I'm wondering whether the coalition might just as easily fall apart. Are the Tories and Lib-Dems suitable materials for bonding into one thing which will be strong enough to lead the country back to less stormy waters?

I suppose putting aside my own prejudices, which suggest that, broadly speaking, all politicians are twats, I ought to be hoping that the coalition will deliver us from evil and yet I feel uneasy. I suspect that neither side will ever really trust the other and that if things get tough it will always be someone else's fault. Even so it's early days and they ought to be given a modest period of grace to try to stop Great Britain plunging into the abyss. In greater North Devon we can now say that both our MPs are on the Government side. Will that make any difference? Well, what do you think? I know, I know, cynicism is unhealthy, but then so are repeatedly dashed hopes.