The Coalition Guardian 8 May 2011
Nick Clegg said after last week’s painful and deep reverses, that we Lib Dems must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down and get back to work at the business we set our hand to – working through the coalition, to clear up the mess that Labour left behind.
And he is right of course. And we will. We have heard the message many of our erstwhile voters have sent. We need to do more to persuade them that compromise is not betrayal. And we accept, as democrats should, the overwhelming verdict of the ballot box on the question of AV. You cannot be a Liberal Democrat and a bad loser (or at least if you are, you’ve joined the wrong Party!)
So its back to business. But that does not mean business as usual. Things have changed because of what has happened in the last three weeks – not because of the AV result but because of the failure of our coalition partners to restrain their supporters in the way that it was fought.
Mr Cameron tells us that, though the No campaign was funded to a level exceeding 90% by Conservative money, he could not exercise restraint on its unbridled personal attacks on his principle coalition partner. To which Liberal democrats say – pull the other one. Did he even try? It doesn’t seem likely, since her resolutely refused every opportunity even to dissociate himself from a campaign which was as disgraceful, as it was damaging to the Coalition he leads.
We are told by Downing Street that the reason they had no influence over the No campaigns tactics was because they were led by the Labour Party. If that is so (and it is difficult to believe), then to provide Tory funds for a campaign which you then hand over to Labour to do damage to the your own Government, is, I agree, not betrayal; just “bloody stupidity”.
We are now told that Mr Cameron is a master strategist. But it is not strategy to exchange short term appeasement your right wing at the cost of long term good relations with your coalition partners. These tactics may have delivered some advantages for the Conservatives last Thursday. But they have consequences – and these are likely to be felt for some considerable time. Our relationship with the Conservative is not built on affection (and if it was, there would be a lot less of it now than there was six weeks ago). It is built on the business we must do together to put our country right. But even business relationships need trust and there is now much less of that around – in fact there is probably none at all, just at the moment.
That is not to say that a working level of trust cannot be rebuilt – but it will not be done quickly or easily.
The Liberal Democrats commitment to honouring the Coalition agreement to the letter, is bankable in all circumstances. But going beyond that will now require painstaking persuasion and the patient reconstruction of our relationship.
I have heard right wing voices trumpeting that, since Conservatives did so wonderfully well in last week’s elections and Liberal Democrats so disastrously badly (their language, not mine) we can now be ignored while they get on with the job of running Britain on Conservative principles. One even put forward the outstandingly generous proposition that, if we took their whip they might give us a free run at the next election. There is a short answer to that which comes in two words, the first of which has four letters and the second, three.
Conservatives would be very foolish indeed to misread the Lib Dem’s polite restraint about using our leverage in this coalition in the interests of collegiality, with an unwillingness to do so if we are forced to.
Mr Lansley’s proposals for reform of the NHS are not in the coalition agreement. Nick Clegg says he will now be spearheading our Lib Dem approach to ensure that these proposals when they are finally brought forward, contain, not just Conservative hopes of what the NHS might be, but also conform to Liberal Democrat principles about what the NHS must be. The signal is clear and I hope our Conservative can see it– Nick has now made this our key priority. And we will back this with votes in Parliament where we need to. Shirley Williams has said she will not vote for these proposals in the Lords in their present form. And, I, for one, will be right behind her.
Then there is the reform of the House of Lords itself. Even amongst other competing domestic priorities, this has extra importance now – for four reasons; it is a crucial part of the modernisation of our democracy; it was in both Party’s manifestos; it is a key part of the coalition agreement. And, given what has just happened, we Liberal Democrats will now want to be reassured that we have coalition partners who will stand up for what we agreed together, rather than backing down in the face of their right wingers.
The last few weeks have been bruising – and not just electorally for the Liberal Democrats. Trust has been damaged too. The result of the AV referendum we accept. The way our coalition partners fought it, we do not. This foolish long term damage for short term reasons can be repaired. We can make this work – we must. But it is not going to be nearly as easy to do so, as it was before all this was allowed to happen.
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