The best and clearest breakdown of the important factors in the 2010 election: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-general-election-2010
The 2010 election led to the first peacetime coalition government in Britain since 1931. It occurred in the midst of a financial crisis, with Britain facing a large budgetary deficit, necessitating a period of austerity. So difficult was Britain's economic position that Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, declared that 2010 was an election which any rational party would wish to lose.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-general-election-2010
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