Looking at No 10

The British,long used to the arrival of the removals van at the backdoor of 10,Downing Street within hours of a government being voted out,watched the seeming spectacle of a prime minister whose party lost the most seats hanging on,trying to patch together a coalition,with the leader of the party that did win the most seats fearing his dream almost crushed. To those long used to hung national legislatures and the vicissitudes attending government formation,the riddle was self-explanatory: nobody had won the May 6 election. A government had to be formed through negotiations,trade-offs and parliamentary arithmetic. And this,with or without electoral reform,may yet become the norm. But the new prime minister of the United Kingdom,David Cameron,has no time to rue his shabby takeover or relish his being the youngest PM since Lord Liverpool,Robert Banks Jenkinson 1812-1827. Two facts are paramount: first,Britain finally has a post-mandate government. Second,theres a crisis of political economy for the deficit-strangled UK and an uncertain market,for the Trojan-Horsed EU. Besides,Britain has commitments in Afghanistan. What Cameron and his deputy PM,Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg,have to provide is a stable government.

This is the UKs first coalition in seven decades,and the Conservatives have come out of the wilderness after 13 years. At the other end of the executive equation,the LibDems,despite losing seats,are finally in government,opting for the more unexpected and unprecedented of the two possible alliances. To their credit,Cameron and Clegg have been speedy learners of this new politics. Defying or convincing their respective hard-liners and voters,however,is still an unfinished job. In the process,Tories and LibDems are negotiating electoral reform,taxes,immigration and the euro among other thorns between them.

The hardest challenge is the record deficit. Will the government introduce cuts? That question will have to be answered one way or the other soon. Meanwhile,polities across the globe will scrutinise how Britain adapts to this politics of compromise,not just in parliament,but within government,where the man Camerons party attacked the most during the campaign is now his deputy.