Writing in the Telegraph, David Laws has been giving his thoughts on how Cameron and Clegg can breathe new life into the coalition, not by a new Agreement as he says the one we have is the most effective and bold programme of any peacetime government in the last 100 years. He adds that it’s vital that the Coalition does continue because the consequences of failure for the country would be unpalatable for the country.
Alongside the over-riding priority of the economy and stimulating economic growth, he gives an outline of what the Coalition could achieve over the next two and a half years:
We could bring our troops back safely and successfully from Afghanistan. We could clean up party funding. We could adopt good ideas from backbench Tory and Lib Dem MPs to reduce childcare costs and bring more competition into banking. Ed Davey, the Climate Change Secretary, will deliver the “Green Deal” – a boost for jobs and the environment. We will work to keep Scotland in the United Kingdom. And we must follow the bold lead first given by the Prime Minister, soon after his election as Conservative leader, and extend the right to marry to gay couples – demonstrating that we are committed to challenging prejudice and to strengthening families of all types. Many predicted there would be a rhythm to this Parliament – unity in the beginning, differentiation in the middle, and divergence at the end. Over the past six months, the process of differentiation and divergence has accelerated, and perhaps rather run ahead of itself. In the past week, I suspect that both party leaders, and most Lib Dem and Conservative MPs, have looked over the post-Coalition cliff. On the whole, I do not think they like what they see.
You can read the article in full here.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
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5 Comments
I see you’ve excluded the line in the article where he says “Michael Gove is proving to be one of the best education secretaries of the past 50 years “. I presume that David has not spoken to any actual teachers or visited any schools in the last two years, otherwise he would know that this is not, shall we say, a widely held view.
Is there no limit to David Laws’ sycophancy? I used to have a lot of time for DL, but can really do without his constant praise of George Osborne, David Cameron and now Gove. Seriously, David, just leave the libdems, please.
………………………………………….But think back carefully over the governments of the past 40 years: arguably, this has been the most harmonious, purposeful and united of any, other than the second Thatcher administration…………..
Well that says much about where he sees his future.
IMHO a Coalition collapse is likely to create a public perception that Coalitions don’t work, meaning that LibDems will not be voted for at the next General Election.
@Richard, I think the electorate might reach a similar conclusion about coalitions even if this one lasts until 2015, and if that’s the case it’ll largely be down to the strategic errors of the Lib Dem leadership from the very beginning. The way things have gone so far, people satisfied with the government’s record by 2015 will just vote Tory. Too much was lost, too early, with the strategy of embracing the Tories so closely.
As for Laws, this article shows exactly why he doesn’t get it. He paints a picture of some grand ideological Tory/Lib Dem vision for the country, and specifically refers to something greater than just deficit reduction. This is at odds with the idea of the Lib Dems gritting their teeth and joining up with the Tories in the national interest – alongside this should be loudly trying to restrain anything else, such as Gove’s vanity project, not cheering him on like Laws does.
I tend to agree that the coalition will last….Cameron’s and Clegg’s political futures depend on it and, since 2010, I have learned never to underestimate our propensity to suffer any humiliation and describe it as either grown up politics, a sensible compromise or, under the circumstances, the right thing to do.