The Tories are plotting a coup in the name of legitimacy | Seumas Milne

Every anti-democratic lever will be pulled to block a Miliband government. Labour has to turn the tables

It’s possible that the Tories may yet pull it off, as their Australian alchemist, Lynton Crosby, has always promised. The main parties may still be almost neck and neck. But undecided voters could break to the Conservatives. Soft Ukip supporters could finally deliver David Cameron the votes he needs to stay in Downing Street.

If so, we know what to expect. With or without Nick Clegg, it will mean even deeper austerity, harsher cuts to social security, accelerating NHS privatisation, more attacks on workers’ rights, new handouts to the wealthy, more poverty and job insecurity, and perhaps another downturn in the slowest economic recovery on record.

Related: There are issues that really matter at this election. But Britain’s media are ignoring them | George Monbiot

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