Several of today's political stories bring to the fore a question that has been rumbling on at least since the Scottish and Welsh elections in early May: the question of partisanship in the new political arena. Can politicians afford to maintain their traditional hostility to members of other parties at a time when party leaders want to appear inclusive and PR electoral systems require coalition?

Let's look at a couple of examples:

• Some Labour peers are by all accounts apoplectic about the appointment of Sir Digby Jones as Minister for Trade Promotion and Investment, and they are unlikely to become much happier now that the Daily Mail has revealed Sir Digby's recent efforts to run for the London mayoralty with Conservative support. ('Labour's Digby "wanted to stand as Tory mayor"')
• Labour activists also want to know why Quentin Davies, an old-school Tory Europhile whose instincts on social policy are distinctly authoritarian, feels at home in their party. As one Tory strategist put it at last week:

What makes the whole thing so infuriating, is that it just doesn’t make sense. There is no logic in Davies swapping sides. He is a socially conservative retard, appallingly illiberal. He is a bucket of bile. Nicholas Soames is probably more liberal. Why would someone like that join Labour? ('Here comes trouble')

• Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, there is the continued reluctance of large elements in the Welsh Labour Party and the Welsh Lib Dems to enter a coalition Assembly government. First saw the All-Wales Accord / Triple Crown / Rainbow Coalition fall by the wayside as Lib Dems got cold feet about jumping in with the Tories; now Rhodri Morgan, who only weeks ago described his coalition options as "a choice between the inedible and the unpalatable" and claimed that Plaid were "unfit to run a cockle stall", is two special conference votes away from a red-green coalition - but not without sniping from several Labour MPs. Kim Howells accuses Morgan of "helping to deliver our communities into the hands of nationalist separatists and incompetents" ('Howells in attack on Plaid pact'), whilst Don Touhig calls the One Wales document electoral "suicide" ('Coalition means "suicide" for Labour'). Neither Labour, Plaid nor the Lib Dems can really claim much credit from these ill-tempered shenanigans.