Horses and horse-trading

Wise Words: horse-trading and horse races

UPDATE 12.05.10: Clegg followed his head and has backed David Cameron, who is now the UK prime minister. Gordon Brown resigned last night, and Cameron had tea with the Queen, who formally asked him to form a government. For more on this tradition, read Robert Gibson's blog.  

Just over a week ago, I wrote about the different horse expressions that were being used to talk about the UK general election. The election was over last Thursday at 9 p.m., but the horses are still running around. They don’t seem able to get past the final post to form a viable government. And people are still using horse expressions to talk about what’s happening.

What started out as a clear two-horse race between the Labour Party and the Conservative Party has now entered another furlong with a third, the Liberal Democrats, who seem to be calling all the shots. On Thursday, Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, started the political horse-trading with the Conservatives. David Cameron was on his way to becoming the next British prime minister in a Tory–Lib Dem coalition government.

Yesterday, however, Gordon Brown shocked everyone with the announcement that he would stand down (but not until September at the next Labour Party conference), leaving it open for Clegg to try some more horse-trading with the Labour Party. It was a long shot on Brown's part — but it could work.

Nick Clegg: a horse trader? Photo: Alex Folkes

Lord Adonis, Transport Secretary, reminded everyone of another important fact yesterday. Even though a Tory-Lib Dem coalition would have a significant parliamentary majority, 15 million people voted for Labour and the Liberal Democrats combined, while “only 10 million voted for the Conservatives”, he pointed out. Maybe the electorate would be happier with this combination. I’m sure Clegg would be.

The press is reporting that Gordon Brown is now off to the knacker’s yard. That’s one horse expression I don’t think we needed to use.

Horse expressions for negotiations

It’s a long shot.
The stakes are high.
We backed the wrong horse.
The odds are against us.
Let’s start the horse-trading!