Are we Ed-ing to a catastrophe?

THE FRIDAY THING: ARE you among the group of people getting excited about the prospects of the next general election in only, er, 200 days?

Let us not forget that, thanks to our well-meaning but thoroughly ill-informed enthusiasm for coalition government and giving Nick Clegg and his tiny and diminishing army of would-be ministers power over us all, just what a mess we’ve got ourselves into.

Just how many Lib-Dems will be left in office after next May is to say the least, uncertain, but there are those who claim it will be in single figures. But there might still be a seat on the election sofa for Nick Clegg, if only to show us all just how bad government can get.

The contest next May will be between the Tories and Ed Miliband’s Labour tribe unless, of course, the Labour party sees sense and finds some courage from somewhere to depose Ed and appoint a successor with sound ideas, good judgment, a good memory and a character that doesn’t belong in a political canteen.

Even the Greens could turn out to have more political credibility than the Lib-Dems, who have done far more harm than good. There isgood reason to believe a party that believes in the environment, the ecology and protection of our endangered species could well have a place in government.

That leaves us with UKIP and bar-leaning Nigel Farage, who seems to have filled the void in our political merry-go-round created by the absence of Screaming Lord Sutch and other characterful loonies.

We could of course give the next election a real boost by running a sweep on who and how many would-be Ukippers will leave the Tories.

Cameron’s concern will be that if Farage’s bar-leaning strategy pays off it will open the door to the possibility of Ed Miliband and Ed Balls running the country.

The exodus will put the Israelites to shame.