Coalition government could represent a revolution in the way politics are conducted in Britain, and even the way UK politics are conducted in Europe, if the German experience is anything to go by.
The prospect is regarded by many in the British establishment with emotions ranging from concern to outright horror. A senior civil servant who was in Berlin last week told his German counterparts that he regarded a hung parliament as little short of a disaster.
Yet Germany, like the Netherlands, Belgium and most Nordic countries, has lived with coalitions for decades, and the process of negotiating and operating them is the political norm. It is not always a pretty sight, decisions tend to take much longer than in a one-party government, and the end result may be less legislation rather than more.
