I’m beginning to get a little irritated by the people who seem to be going out of their way to tell me that they didn’t vote Lib Dem for them to jump into bed with the Tories, amazingly enough, neither did I.
Firstly, I am not at all sure that all the people who now say they voted Lib Dem did actually do so, and secondly, it is alarmingly apparent that very, very few people have the slightest understanding about what being in coalition actually means, and this includes many journalists who seem ‘wedded’ to allusions of romance and marriage between the unlikeliest of couples. (I hope you will forgive my use of the same allusion).
This coalition is a hastily arranged marriage rather than a passionate affair. It is a marriage of convenience, speedily put together with the national, rather than party interest at the forefront. Britain, at this time of economic crisis needed the most stable government it could possibly have, given the result of last Thursday’s general election. Yes, the inclination of most Liberal Democrats is towards Labour rather than the Conservatives, but that had little or no prospect of stability in the short term, let alone for the life of a parliament. The figures just didn’t stack up, even if one was prepared to incorporate the SNP and Plaid, and that was not without its own particular risks. Coalition with a leaderless Labour Party just out of office after thirteen years was simply not a realistic possibility.
Clearly, the Liberal Democrats were between a rock and a hard place. The only hope of reasonable stability had to be a deal with the Conservatives, the other alternative, a minority Conservative government was theoretically possible, but for how long? Certainly not long enough to steady the financial markets. No, it was Hobson’s choice, the Conservatives or instability and given that this was the case, both negotiating teams appear to have set about the task of hammering out a coalition deal with an admirable sense of purpose. How long will it last? nobody knows. Will it work? It’s far too early to say.
Things will be clearer when we stop doing our Richard Wilson impressions, you know, pacing up and down muttering “I don’t believe it! I simply don’t believe it!” It’s a coalition not an earthquake, nobody died because of the agreement between the Conservatives and the Lib Dems. A coalition has been formed, and now it has to work. Get over it!
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5 comments:
People who voted positively for our four main planks (OK, two were only indirectly achievable in Wales) will surely be happy to see them covered by the agreement. Nick Clegg is preparing legislation to clean up politics, and the increase in personal allowances for income tax will come in next year. The Conservatives seem to have adopted our education policies.
The coalition has done no harm at all to recruitment for the Liberal Democrats.
Early days, Frank, Exciting nevertheless. Our local Tories are looking a bit glum.
That is good news.
i voted lib dem here in b and r to keep suzy d o-u-t.
ok williams has been a fairly good mp but to have a seemingly dirty deal done nationaly leaves a sour taste.
the predictions for a hung parliament were known weeks before and certainly after the first debate where clegg was heralded as the clear winner and seemingly a upsuge in lib dem vote.
so why after that period were the possibilities of a lib - con coalition not mentioned more so.
youre right davidthe country does need stability in economic crisis but can you guarantee that from this marriage of conveneance when their are so many disenting voicees from the spectrum and the tory right and many prominent lib dems.
stability economic or not will not be aheivable if parliament cant do business.
with so many fine majorities returned it wont be long untill the tories will push the lib dems away from government.
so why after that period were the possibilities of a lib - con coalition not mentioned more
Because we couldn't predict what the new House of Commons would look like, in spite of what the opinion polls said. We would have preferred to be the largest party, but, since we weren't, we accepted that the leader of the party with the most seats should be the prime minister. When offered the chance to carry out around half of our manifesto pledges - something which would not have been possible with any other possible grouping - naturally, the parliamentary party took it.
I agree with you about Roger Williams. I am disappointed that he was not offered the Secretary of State position, but we couldn't have everything we wanted. We Liberal Democrats punched above our weight even so.
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