Days of wrangling, negotiations, last-ditch attempts to cling to power and concessions came to an end yesterday. The Tories and the Liberal Democrats formed the first UK coalition government in 70 years – but the question on everyone’s lips the world over is “will it last?”

If one looks at the core values of the Conservatives and the Lib Dems, one can reach the conclusion that this is, at the very least, a marriage of inconvenience. By definition, Nick Clegg’s party – who of course is Deputy Prime Minister – is liberal and progressive. The Conservatives, led by Prime Minister David Cameron are supposedly just that – resistant to change and intent on doing things the ‘old-fashioned’ way.

But in all honesty, the political colours have become very blurred in this day and age. Red and Blue – in all political arenas – are merely flagship colours. The issues which are pertinent to British subjects are the financial crisis, the economy, immigration, retaining the sterling, crime and education. Each and every party had these issues on their manifestos and while they differed in the way they wished to tackle them, they were all (even Labour) in agreement insomuch.

Of course, the Lib Dems would have been more at home in sidling up the Labour Party in terms of being closer in fundamental values, but this was impossible. Nick Clegg’s immediate reaction to the election result was that the Tories should go ahead and form a minority government in view of respecting the wishes of the people of Britain. In saying that, he shot down any chance of forming a coalition with Labour, even if they managed to get a rainbow coalition going with the Ulster unionists, the SDP and others. And so Camerlegg it is. If one looks at commentary around Europe, the message seems to be “what was the rush?” and “what was all the fuss about?”. When one realises that the whole of Europe is made up of coalition governments apart from Malta and Portugal – we can see why.

And this is why the issue is of such interest to Maltese people. Until very recently the UK was one of the few countries we could identify with in terms of political landscape. You had red; you had blue and one of the two was always going to govern the country. It is very similar to what we have here. But now that the Lib Dems have got into government (and quite strongly at that with four cabinet posts, a deputy PM and 20 government jobs), it really does make us wonder what a strong third party could do for Maltese politics.

Of course, our mainstream politicians want nothing of the sort. Why share power when you can have it all to yourself? But this election campaign – although thousands of miles away – can teach us a lot. When one looks at the shenanigans – from both sides in Parliament last week, the consensus is that it was childish behaviour that does not reflect well on the highest institution of our land. When one then looks at the entrances and exits of Brown, Clegg and Cameron and the respect they have for each other, each other’s party, the Constitution and above all else, the will of the people, we realise that we are still a young democracy that hasn’t quite got to grips with being in power and aspiring for it.

The biggest lesson to be learnt from all this is that the voter is the chief. The voter is the employer and the voter has the final say. We would do well to learn from it – politicians and voters alike (especially the latter). But back to the question we posed earlier. Will it last? One could say that the coalition knows that a stable UK government is key to steering the Kingdom away from financial ruin. But when referendums on transfer of powers to Brussels, electoral reform and the debate on the UK’s nuclear deterrent come about – it might be an entirely different kettle of fish.