Political Parties - Conservatives backtracking and Lib Dems not hanging

Two articles from this mornings papers:

Ignore the propaganda and spin - the Tory party hasn’t changed (Independent) Johann Hari attacks David Cameron’s claim to have “changed” the Conservative Party. Even if we assume the Tory leader is sincerely committed to a modernized agenda, he will not be able to defy his party’s core instincts for long, especially when he has a small majority: “The evidence suggests that when he is faced with a challenge, Cameron rushes right back up the road to Damascus – into the loving arms of an unreformed right-wing party.”

Clegg’s coalition ruling is one more nail in Labour’s coffin (Guardian) Martin Kettle says that Nick Clegg’s decision to rule out a coalition with either Labour or the Tories means that a hung parliament will almost certainly produce a minority Conservative government: “By ruling out the possibility of the Liberal Democrats forming a coalition with Labour or the Conservatives after the next election Clegg did not just pre-empt the endless campaign trail questions about who he is more likely to shack up with. He also blew away a lot of wishy-washy talk surrounding the whole subject of hung parliaments”