h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Nice title.

Being a civil servant means i have a new boss today. I was expecting Theresa May, and i got Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory Party leader. Don;t know who the junior ministers, who have more direct involvement with my area of work, are yet. I believe there will be 15 Lib Dem junior ministers, in addition to the five cabinet ministers, so maybe we'll get one of them as Pensions Minister

I was struck by David Cameron's explanation that he and Nick Clegg looked at each other and agreed that the Bait-and-Switch or Supply-and-Hold or whatever-its-called wasn't very inspiring. That sounded like a genuine moment of excitement and enthusiasm, described very genuinely.

I'm aware I want this to work.

B

Yes, I'm surprised at my own reaction! I imagined I'd be grumpy at the prospect of a Tory PM, but the thought that's gone into ripping up the old way of doing things and trying to get the best out of both manifestos - not to mention the shift to collaborating, compromising and negotiating - a move away from the the old adversarial "I'm right you're wrong" battling...has to be good, no?

Having seen how erstwhile "enemies" in Norn Irn have managed to function a power-sharing executive, I fell optimistic that this will be for the good. I don't doubt there'll be some bumps and bruises along the way though.

It's all partly my fault. I spent a lot of time in the past month doing my bit to help a very nice-seeming man named David Ward to become the new Liberal Democrat MP for Bradford East. I delivered leaflets while dodging some very unfriendly , prepared more leaflets for delivery and then finally acted as a teller at two polling stations. I am not a morning person, and I even managed to get to a polling station at 7am for my first shift as a teller. Almost exactly 24 hours later, David won the seat by 365 votes.

I felt very proud of that, but then very uneasy about the coalition; I hadn't made all that effort intending to put David Cameron into Downing Street. Since then I've read the details of the coalition agreement, and now feel better about everything. I really don't like the immigration policy and I'm worried about the plans for pensions and welfare, but I'm much happier about the proposals on civil liberties, reform of the political system and tax cuts for the low-paid. I hardly dare believe that we're finally going to get an elected House of Lords. That change is about a century overdue!

Sorry, just interrupting to say it took me several moments to notice "Con-Dem Nation". I can't stop giggling.