British politics

David Cameron faces some of the most difficult problems any peace-time UK government ever had to tackle. And neither his party’s mediocre share of the popular vote nor his thin parliamentary majority will help.

Eventually, once all the political dust has settled and Britain gets a stable government, we could talk about some more interesting questions. Such as Britain’s budget deficit.

Few things about this year’s British general elections are predictable. The one exception is that governing Britain will not be any easier after May 7.

As Scotland votes on independence from the UK today, it would be courageous to speculate on the result. Recent opinion polls have been so tight that the referendum could go either way. But whatever the Scots decide, the implications will be severe — not just for the (still) UK but also for the EU as well.

At the same time that London needs to praise the advantages of EU membership to the Scots, it downplays the importance of being an EU member to everybody else. What sounds totally illogical makes perfect sense when seen through the prism of political necessity.

It is hard to follow the Cameron chameleon and make sense of his latest mimesis. Suddenly he believes in tax cuts, reducing benefits, cutting the budget and fighting the EU . He now actually sounds like a, well, Tory.

The next UK election will be about what kind of country Britain wants to be: a country of business or a redistributionist welfare state? Who would have thought David Cameron would ever put this question to the electorate?

When Cameron finally delivers his long-awaited speech on Europe, he now faces a real choice. Will he actually say something substantial on the issue, risking a confrontation with his party, his coalition partner, the public, the media, and of course his European colleagues? Or will he once more try to please everyone?