I've noted with wry amusement that ever since I came out as an enthusiast for the Change Coalition, the media invites have dried up. Believe me, after Friday's marathon I am hardly complaining. I can do with the rest, but note how the news channels are concentrating on using Tory pundits (eg Fraser Nelson and Tim Montgomerie) who could at best be described at sceptical about a coalition, if not downright hostile. That's hardly surprising. New channels and programmes always like to invite on Tory guests who may disagree with the line the party is promulgating. What a pity they don't do this as often with Labour pundits. They can't get enough of Brown enthusiasts like Charlie Whelan or Kevin Maguire.
Anyway, stick with me here thoughout the rest of the day. I'm making the supreme sacrifice and abandoning my plans to go to Upton Park to see West Ham's last game of the season, in favour of following what's unfolding in Westminster.
I am really confident that by the end of the day we will have good news, and that the Change Coalition is forging ahead. We may not have quite reached the endgame, but my sixth sense tells me that we're nearing it.
This is a time when Conservative activists need to invest some trust in the party's leadership. Norman Tebbit's efforts to undermine Cameron's position is nothing new. He's been doing it for the last five years. I wonder what he'd have thought of someone who had tried to do that to Margaret Thatcher in the mid 1980s. I know. he'd have had them neutered. Of course there will be people in the Conservative Party who don't want to do a deal with the LibDems. In normal circumstances I would be one of them. But we are not in normal circumstances and we have to do what is best for the country. It's no good following Norman Tebbit's logic and sticking your head in the ground like an ostrich and ignoring the realpolitik of the situation. You have to deal with the cards you are dealt, and that's what David Cameron and his colleagues are doing now.
They deserve all our support.
