Lord Baker: Grand Coalition is a 'muddled middle'

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There are significant voices ready to consider the prospect of a Grand Coalition. Among them, Lord Kenneth Baker, the Conservative party chairman under Margaret Thatcher, who was variously Secretary of State for Education, Environment and the Home Office. He said "there is a considerable degree of agreement between the parties at the moment" on housing, the health service, Trident, the deficit and education. It should not be too difficult for the parties to work together. However, it's not something Britain is familiar with. "We've not been used to coalition apart from war time" he commented. Coalition is working for other European countries, such as Germany, but for the UK he said it would be a "game changer". We have been used to a two party system of Conservative and Labour, which hasn't been a bad thing for the country. Lord Baker said "the great advantage of that system is that it's prevented Britain lurching to the extreme right or the extreme left."