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courtesy of the guardian.
A senior Labour figure has urged his Liberal Democrat counterpart in the House of Lords to "keep the lines of communication open", in the strongest signal to date that elements of the party are preparing the ground for a possible Lib-Lab coalition after the next election.
Demonstrating Labour's desire to rebuild relations with the Liberal Democrats, Labour's chief whip in the Lords, Lord Bassam, has written to his Lib Dem equivalent welcoming his background as a "flexible friend of other parties" and urging him to meet with them more often.
Bassam's letter to Lord Newby is being represented as an attempt to move the two parties beyond sometimes bitter relations in the last parliament over controversial measures such as the shakeup of the NHS, welfare and legal aid.
"The last couple of years have been a bit bruising for your colleagues in this house, and no doubt they will be looking forward to a change of management to see if it brings some light relief," says Bassam. Later he writes: "I would keep a weather eye on the general election and thereafter. Your background as a flexible friend of other parties may come in handy. Keeping lines of communication open to the official opposition party might serve you well in the longer term."
The letter, sent just over a week ago, follows a report that the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, has been having phone calls with the Lib Dem business secretary, Vince Cable, a professed "social democrat" on the left of his party and one of the few senior figures who has been openly critical in government - a development interpreted as a sign of thawing relations. Labour politicians also appear to have moderated a tactic of riling their opponents by describing them as "Liberals".