To be honest, none of the three parties are stable enough for me to be entirely sure what would be best case scenario. I would say Tory-Lib alliance, despite poor chancellors, would be for the best if Clegg can keep his party with him for two years but not sure on that.

Would rather not have one party getting blamed for the cuts that are to come.

Cameron is the new PM

Osbourne as Chancellor is the most worrying thing, not sure I like the idea of a 5 year fixed term given I'm not sure Cameron and Clegg can hold the loyalty of their parties for that long.

Best of luck to Cameron and his ministers, got a hard job ahead.

Much as every party campaigned hard to win the election, this to be honest is the election you won't want to win. Labour are going to be sat back and laughing hard at the moment as they prepare to berate their two main competitors in their attempts to get the country out of the state it is in. I don't care for or believe in politics, but this is going to be interesting...

Sick of hearing about this new bloody government already. I give them a year, the Conservatives are nothing new, old school chums and rich families, Lib Dems have sold themselves out in order to get power and they will suffer with the grassroots of their party who will be horrified by this coliation. Another election called very soon I expect and some Lib Dems will defect to Labour

Of the Cabinet, more likes then dislikes on my part and a whole lot of will wait and see. Give them 2-3 years, both parties have some good ministers and Labour may be out of action for a bit. Did find Cameron and Clegg's reaction to journalist asking about "what's your fav joke. Cameron: Clegg" as quite amusing

I think they are 'locked in' to this coalition for 5 years.

I'm not sure what will happen but they have a hell of a job on their hands. The two parties actually agree on more than I thought they would but issues such as immigration and nuclear power are time bombs waiting to explode.

I'm in the know, if you see me running, try and keep up.

Just voted now. Hopefully the threat of a massive swing to the left will be averted and the present government will be returned. We need calm heads now to steady the ship. The possibility of a soviet style government is what you're getting if you vote socialist.

Anyway if that happens, I'm sure we'll hear the sound of tanks rumbling into Dublin City tomorrow to put down any left-wing attempts to rule.

That's assuming we have tanks. If not, heavily-plated taxi cabs will do the job.

So the government up to now (don't know their name, just remember that the party had "fail" in their name) is/was conservative? I read today that the party that is likely to win only differs very slightly in their programme. I also read that the fail-party was popular for their optimistic outlook on things.

The likely outgoing party ,and probable incoming party, to whom you refer would both be conservative / centre-right in ideology - though that is skewed more now than ever. The probable difference is that the probable incoming party (Fine Gael) will not gain an overall majority (for differing reasons) and the government they form will be tempered by a centre left party (Labour) or a conglomerate of Independents (:barf:). Not a hell of a lot of options really.

I see, so the likely outcome is a coalition of the other conservative party and basically whoever is willing (Labour or Independents)? Apart from the political viewpoint one might entertain, that doesn't sound like the decisive government Ireland probably needs now. I mean, they are likely to block themselves in a lot of decisions, right? At least that's what would happen in the German political system.

Lets say for example that a combintaion, however unpalatable, of Fine Gael and Labour form the next government. There are many issues on which these collide, some that would be deemed impassable in a normal economic climate.Plus they have a history of collapsed governments between them when power was shared. However this is not a normal situation we are in.

Yes, some decisions will take that much longer to rubber-stamp due to differing ideologies. But to a certain degree I am in favour of people with power questioning people with power.

The major point of agreement of these two possible coalition partners is the re-negotiation of the EU/IMF deal, which is essential. Aside from cocking up the country, the outgoing party will not renegotiate.