The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have agreed to form the first peacetime coalition government in modern British history. The result will be an administration that will become rapidly unpopular in Britain and which, unlike Labour under Gordon Brown, does not understand the need for strong economic ties with China.

The reason the Conservatives have been forced, for the first time for almost a century, into a peacetime coalition was their failure to win a majority of Parliamentary seats despite the unpopularity of the Labour government. For most of the last century the Conservatives were the traditional governing party but their support among voters has been in long-term decline. Unable any longer to secure a majority in parliament, the Conservatives have been forced to turn to the Liberal Democrats.

Contrary to media reports that a "hung parliament" was seen as a surprise, the result of the British general election flowed from a long term trend in voting patterns. The chart shows that while there have been short term fluctuations from election to election, the steady downward trend of support for the Conservative Party is clear.

The Conservative Party's support reached its highest ever level, at 60.7 percent of the vote, before World War II. Since then the Conservative vote has steadily fallen each time it has formed a government; from 49.6 percent in 1955, to 41.9 percent the last time it won a majority in Parliament in 1992, and finally to 36.1 percent at this general election, when it failed to secure enough seats to govern alone.

It was, therefore, no surprise that the level of support for the Tories at this general election was lower than the media anticipated.