One of the refrains I’ve noticed – particularly from LibDem supporters – most especially in the discussion pages of the Guardian, is that they didn’t vote for the Lib Con coalition. Well, yes, no one did, but given the nature of the outcome, what subsequently happened was the best solution for a stable government.
In many respects it is the Libs who achieved most. After all, there are Lib policies now to be enacted by the new government and there are Lib MPs to be sitting around the cabinet table. So all of those people who voted LibDem actually did vote for this. It’s just that normally they don’t come close to seeing it happen. Yet still, within the pages of the Guardian there comes the incessant whine of those who do not understand the principle of compromise. They want it all. They cannot have it all. They want purity. They cannot have purity. What they can have – and have got – is some of their objectives achieved. The alternative is nothing. Better something than nothing for a reasonable, rational person. Those who want purity are not rational, nor are they being reasonable. They simply cannot enjoy the moment, an achievement way beyond the aspirations of the third party that lost seats in the election, a level of power that they could only dream of.
Had I been a LibDem supporter still, I would have been making the most of this moment as I know all too well that sooner or later it will end in tears. It always does.
Indeed. What they actually seem to want is to be able to impose their views on everyone, even if the majority disagree- which is not my definition of liberal, regardless that they do have a lot of ideas I agree with.
Just means that the electorate knows they’ve been shafted sooner rather than later, and the disillusionment can set in immediately, rather than later. Makes a pleasant change.
On second thoughts- this behind the scenes bargaining was exactly what the Lib-Dem voters voted for- and if they have there way on PR it will become a permanent fixture in British politics, rather than an occasional glitch as now
I voted LibDem for electoral reform and civil liberties. I am surprised that Clegg opted for full coalition; I thought that a Tory minority government would be a more likely result. But I voted LD in the full knowledge that this could be the result. Even though I used to be a staunch Labour voter, I would have been pretty unhappy about a Lib/Lab pact. You can’t ally with a reactionary party of war that thinks that the only good right is an abolished right. And the numbers meant that such a pact would have had no chance of getting a Queen’s Speech through – so was dead in the water anyway.
Clegg is taking a big risk in this arrangement and it might result in the annhilation of the LibDems. But as long as we get a ‘Freedom Act’ out of it, that sweeps away the most egregious of Labour’s authoritarian laws, I’ll be content. What price a used ID Card now 🙂
Bit strange for LD supporters to complain about a coalition, since that is what the party has openly sought, in some form or another, for years. I can remember Paddy Ashdown punting hard for the hope of being in one years ago when he was leader. And yes, I write as yet another former Lib Dem voter.
As I implied in my post at Cats that you kindly linked to, I think there was a certain constituency expecting/hoping for a Lab/Lib coalition, that is people whose politics would be defined as “simply anti-conservative”, the kind of people who are now pushing this “progressive majority” meme. They are probably the ones complaining. It must have been a terrible disappointment to them when the Labs and Libs didn’t get enough numbers for a coalition of the “progressive”. It’s sour grapes from a failed stitch-up. There’s nothing more annoying than a cunning devious conspiracy that goes tits up.
How many months do you give it?
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60 months. Next election 7th May 2015.
Perhaps!
Agreed.
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“I voted LibDem for electoral reform and civil liberties,” wrote one of the commenters. Well, he’s bound for disappointment then because the EU the Lib Dems love so much is dedicated to removing civil liberties. But the left never were logical.
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Well, he’s bound for disappointment then because the EU the Lib Dems love so much is dedicated to removing civil liberties
The objectionable aspects of ID Cards were all original to the British government. It became a routine device of the previous Labour government to say that its depradations were prompted by EU regulations. Very often the reason why objectionable requirements come into EU regulations is BECAUSE the British government argues for them at the committee stage. However there are enough people who loath the EU irrationally to believe that it is all a foreign plot to undo us. In fact these attacks on freedom are all internal.
But the left never were logical
A first in Mathematics from Oxford says you are wrong.