There they stood, in the Rose Garden at Number 10 Downing Street. Two smoothy 40-somethings in blue suits, arraigned behind identical lecterns, joshing away like a pair of ITV comedians — the Chuckle Brothers, perhaps.

The era of Dick Clameron has begun.

One can perhaps forgive them their moment of exuberance. It’s not often a chap becomes Prime Minister, even if he was expecting it. Nor a no-hoper, doomed to a life as a political Bedouin, unexpectedly to emerge as Deputy Prime Minister. It was more than a jaw-dropping occasion, it had all the ingredients of a new dawn, did it not?

For those who welcome a kindlier, softer form of Government, stationed firmly on the soggy marshland of the centre ground, it must have been a red letter day. From now on blue means red, or at least orange.

And, yes, there are lots of kindlier, softer things to look forward to, including higher taxes, chummier governance, smiles all round.

Crisis, what crisis? Do you mean our little, local difficulties? Don’t worry your pretty heads about it. The Clameroons are here.

Even Alex Salmond fell for the spell as the circus wafted into Edinburgh yesterday. Don’t be fooled, the phoney honeymoon is about to end.

Next week is a crunch period for the country. The question put will not concern who occupies Downing Street, but who governs Britain?

In Brussels, our secret masters are planning an audacious land-grab of power under the cover of the collapsing eurozone. Having presided over that chaos, they now want to drag us into the mess of their own manufacture.

On Tuesday, the Alternative Investment Directive comes up for final endorsement by senior politicians. It’s already got through committee stage, as participant Daniel Hannan has described in his blog.

It will do untold damage to the City of London, which has over 80% of Europe’s alternative investment businesses. Even the Americans, who are competitors in this trade, are protesting at this bulldozing measure.

Where is the opposing army to defend our shores? While I have every faith in George Osborne and William Hague to put up a fight, somehow Dick Clameron doesn’t instil much confidence.

There follows the EU Commission’s demand that all UK Budgets be submitted to them for approval before they are put to our “sovereign” Parliament. Where are the shouts of opposition? Apart from a few doughty journalists, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in particular, most people are still basking in the rosy glow of sweet togetherness.

Three governing bodies are being set up in Brussels to cement the final bars into our new economic prisonhouse. Welcome to the fascist Europe some of us have been warning of for years.

Make no mistake, these decisions will make Britain a minor protectorate of the illegitimate Brussels regime.

David Cameron must now tear himself away from the embrace of LibDem Euro infatuation and fight as if his life depends on it. Now is the time to take an arms-length position to the colossal burgeoning mess on the Continent and refuse to participate in anything they cook up.

If the Conservative Party can’t handle that, it doesn’t deserve to exist, let alone take office.

John Evans

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David Cameron being appointed Prime Minister by the Queen

Hail to the Chief.

ROLLING POST

[7.30pm GMT 11 May] David Cameron is the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He is the Queen’s 12th Prime Minister of her Reign, the youngest since Lord Liverpool in 1812.

[7pm GMT 11 May] David Cameron is heading towards Buckingham Palace to kiss hands with the Queen on appointment as Britain’s new Prime Minister.

[6.43pm GMT 11 May] Gordon Brown has left the Palace and is no longer Prime Minister. Britain as of now has no PM. The Queen herself holds that power until, in 15 minutes, David Cameron is expected to arrive and relieve his Monarch of that burden.

[6.20pm GMT 11 May] Gordon Brown announced he has resigned both as Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party. He is currently on the way to Buckingham Palace to tender his resignation to the Queen. David Cameron is expected to go to the Palace soon. Nick Clegg is expected to be Deputy Prime Minister in the new Government.

[5pm GMT 11 May] The Queen is in Buckingham Palace as a deal is very close between the Conservatives and Lib Dems. Her Private Secretary is reported to be in the Cabinet Office. Brown is expected to resign tonight to take up a career of writing and charity.

[4.17pm GMT 11 May] The BBC’s Nick Robinson is reporting that fixed, four-year Parliaments part of deal with Lib Dems.

[4pm GMT 11 May] Gordon Brown will resign his seat and leave politics altogether.

[3.45pm GMT 11 May] Sky reporting that staff assembling in 10 Downing Street to say goodbye to the Browns.

[3.35 GMT 11 May] Meeting of the Privy Council in Buckingham Palace in 25 minutes. Although a routine one, it could become involved with the fast-moving events.

[3.15 GMT 11 May] The Evening Standard is reporting that Gordon Brown is about to resign. He will go to the Palace this evening or tomorrow morning. The Queen will then send for David Cameron.

[3pm GMT 11 May] There are reports on the BBC that Gordon Brown’s baggage is being loaded into cars as I write. Now denied.

It also looks as if the Conservatives will form a pact with the Lib Dems later today — “The only deal in town” (Lib Dems).

Could David Cameron go to the Palace this evening? We await the Queen’s helicopter from Windsor imminently.

John Evans

SNP Westminster leader, Angus Robertson’s assertion that because the Conservatives only have one seat in Scotland, a Tory Government across the UK would not be proper, is wrong. Alex Salmond has also made a similar point. This from a regional party with six Parliamentary seats and a minority in Scotland.

The absurdity of Robertson’s argument lies in the SNP’s irritating habit of confusing what happens in Scotland with UK-wide elections.

Normally the arithmetic determines who rules in London. A Prime Minister must be able to command a majority in the House of Commons, whether from his own party exclusively or a combination of other friendly groupings.

However, the devolution settlement in Scotland, now with its own Parliament for home affairs, and less powerful Assemblies in Wales and Northern Ireland, change the expectations from any deal.

The largest “nation” in the United Kingdom, England, does not have a Parliament. It shares its legislature with the three Celtic regions, and indeed supplements their high-spending habits.

England voted overwhelmingly Conservative in this, and also in the previous, General Election. David Cameron has a majority of 62 in England, and is very close to one in the UK overall. He also gained three million votes from Labour. In these circumstances, the expectation must be that the Tories form a Government in Westminster.

The alternative is that the old exhausted Labour Government, now a diminished minority, is retained at a time of acute financial and economic crisis. That is simply not acceptable. It completely disenfranchises the English, who would be subject to two regimes, one foreign, they have not voted for.

No country can treat the largest part of its population with such disdain and hope to survive as a constitutional entity.

The spectacle of failed Prime Minister Gordon Brown hanging on in Downing Street, while the badly beaten Liberal Democrats swan around deciding who should replace him, is beyond parody. In the vernacular, it stinks.

David Cameron must stand up for his large English majority. He needs to speak out now and send a discreet message to the Palace.

He also needs to be visibly, publicly, angry.

The three regional “parliaments” have changed irrevocably the alchemy of General Elections. In the absence of a decisive majority whose credentials are clear, England’s wish must hold sway. In this case, David Cameron should be Prime Minister now, with a few weeks grace in which to negotiate his Queen’s Speech and his emergency Budget through the House of Commons.

Forget Labour-friendly Gus O’Donnell’s paper on procedure, the Queen should have been advised to dismiss Gordon Brown on Friday and send for David Cameron. Nothing less satisfies both the electorate’s verdict and the expectations of the English.

England expects!

John Evans

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I’ve just watched the most extraordinary row between Labour spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, and Sky News’s Political Editor, Adam Boulton.

At one point it looked as if they were about to come to blows. Boulton, in very aggressive terms, accused Campbell of “telling him what to think”, and he kept repeating that almost like a man possessed.

Campbell kept his cool but seemed surprised at the fury of Adam Boulton’s reaction. Sky’s veteran presenter, Jeremy Thompson, tried to cool the clash, but looked embarrassed at Boulton’s continued tirade.

In the end Sky cut to Gordon Brown’s resignation announcement.

I must say, I thought Adam Boulton’s aggression was rather unprofessional, even given Campbell’s well known serpentine method of dealing with journalists. Clearly, the two men don’t get on, and a lot of repressed fury poured out in the confrontation.

Boulton has been under momentous pressure during the election and is undoubtedly exhausted. Today he snapped.

Unedifying? Yes; understandable? Yes; but it was unprofessional.

I hope he keeps his job, though. He would be hard to replace.

Take a look. Make up your own mind:

John Evans