Government may need a mandate from the people to get debt deal

IS there, do you think, any real possibility that we will have a general election over the promissory note?

There’s certainly a compelling case for playing the strongest hand we have in the negotiations now nearing their climax. And the ante has been upped, so to speak, by some of the comments made over the weekend.

I know I’ve often said here that no government is ever as unstable as it looks from the outside, nor as stable either. Whenever a government looks particularly rocky, you can bet that there are people working feverishly behind the scenes to shore it up. But by the same token, when a government seems to be in a pretty impregnable position, there are sometimes forces at play that the rest of us don’t see until it’s too late.