Can we be serious now?

Now that the knockabout comedy posturing of the "leaders" debates are over can we get down to some serious discussion about the future of Britain and the General Election?

I mean, the media may be falling over themselves to tell us how these debates have "changed politics for ever" - which may be true although I don't believe for one moment that the change has been a positive one - but remarkably reticent to admit that after four and a half hours of public scrutiny we're still none the wiser about what any of them plan to do much of anything and even less about the disastrous state of our economy.

Meanwhile, Mervyn King - the governor of the Bank Of England - is reported to have said that whoever ends up in government is likely to be so unpopular that they'll eventually be kicked out and out of power for a generation. If this is true, then one can only hope that the three main parties put aside their differences, form a coalition of "consensus" which will make all three of them unelectable in the future.

And I do think Mervyn King is right - indeed, I've said pretty much the same thing myself both here and on other blog sites. Peter Hitchens is urging anyone who will listen on his blog to not vote Tory at the next election in the hope that another Tory defeat will result in the collapse of the Conservative Party allowing room for a proper conservative party to emerge.

Although I share Mr. Hitchens' views that the Tory party needs to collapse before a proper social conservative party can make any inroads into the political scene in Britain, I don't share his view that this can only be achieved by a Tory defeat. Whether they win or lose the election the Tories are likely to collapse - the only difference is that it might take a year or two longer if they win.

The worst possible outcome for those of us wanting the Tory party to collapse and a new conservative party to emerge is for the Tories to "win" the most seats, but end up as the opposition to a Lib/Lab coalition - that's the only scenario where I think Cameron and his ilk can make a case for the survival of the Tory party in its current form.

It doesn't really matter though. After a couple of disastrous years under a Lib/Lab coalition that government will also collapse and the Tories - under Cameron - will sweep to a landslide election victory. Two years later and they'll be all washed up too. It just means we'll have to wait a couple of years longer for a political party to emerge which is serious about putting Britain back on its feet.

And if nothing else, I hope by then we can be serious about our politics instead of this infantile "X Factor" version we have now.