HOW CAMERON BLEW IT: he went soft on the EU

He didn't run to the right enough:

GUARDIAN:

David Cameron couldn't beat Gordon Brown in a general election during the worst recession since the Great Depression because he wasn't considered trustworthy even by Tory voters, let alone by floaters. The whole point about breaking his cast-iron guarantee of a referendum on Lisbon wasn't the sceptical specificity of the pledge broken, but the way that he did it. This spoke to a suspicion plenty of people bored rigid by Europe already had about Cameron. And confirming voters' negative prejudices about you is never a particularly deft move for would-be prime ministers.

THIS LED THE UKIP TO STAY IN THE RACE AND UKIP GOT ENOUGH VOTES TO GIVE LABOUR AND THE LIB-DEMS 17 SEATS. UPI:

The small UK Independence Party may have won enough votes in 10 districts to cost the Conservative Party those seats in the British Parliament, officials say.

Across the country, the Eurosceptic UKIP picked up only 3 percent of the vote, the Daily Mail reported Saturday. But in some districts in southwestern England where distrust of the European Union is strong, the party pulled in more votes than the margin of victory for Labor or Lib-Dem

winners.

At least some Conservatives damaged by the party share its views, the Mail said. David Heathcote-Amory lost his seat in Wells by 800 votes to a Liberal Democrat in a district where 1,711 went to the UKIP candidate.

At least four Labor ministers kept their parliamentary seats in districts where Conservative candidates would have won if they had picked up all the UKIP votes...

... The Conservatives won 307 seats, 17 short of a parliamentary majority.

Tories 'wrong to ignore Ukip offer'

David Cameron's refusal to accept an offer of electoral co-operation from the UK Independence Party may have cost him the chance of leading a Conservative majority government, Nigel Farage said.

Ukip said last year that its candidates were ready to stand aside in seats where they could harm Tories in return for a referendum on Britain leaving Europe.

Conservative activists have compiled a list of 21 seats where the votes secured by Ukip candidates outstripped the margin between a second-placed Tory and the Labour or Liberal Democrat victor.

Had Ukip voters given their support to the Tory candidate in all these seats, Mr Cameron would now enjoy a wafer-thin overall majority in the House of Commons, and would not be forced to see a deal with the Lib Dems.

After being released from the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, where he was treated for injuries suffered in a polling day plane crash, Mr Farage told the Press Association: "In parts of the South and West, it's quite possible Ukip has led to a hung Parliament, in which case Mr Cameron should have accepted my offer last year.

"We said that if he promised to give us a referendum, we wouldn't field any candidates, but he refused."

That's how Cameron blew it.

For Britain's sake - and the sake of Europe - I hope he puts together a coalition government which can get Britain and Europe through the next year. Then ... the Tories need to call another election.

STAY TUNED...