LibLink: Norman Baker – Despite the doomsayers’ predictions of failure from Day One, the Coalition has bedded down well

Over at the Mail on Sunday, Lib Dem transport minister Norman Baker talks about his own experiences of being on the wrong end of the Telegraph’s ‘sting’ operation, in which the paper targeted MPs’ constituency surgeries to entrap them into confessions of Coalition discord. Here’s an excerpt:

Over the years, I have seen thousands of constituents at my surgeries. Many have had big problems. Many have been in a highly emotional state. Some have even been crying. Every week, up and down the country, constituents like this access their MP for help. They come along because they trust their MP to deal with their issues with sensitivity and in confidence.

An MP’s surgery, just like a doctor’s, is a forum where a constituent can be totally open and frank. For the session to work, an MP has to be able to be open and frank in return. Are we going to be able to do that in future, having to judge whether the person who arrives in tears is really about to be made homeless, or has some other ulterior motive?

This seems to be the view of many of my constituents as well. One emailed me to say that she felt the essential confidentiality of the relationship between a constituent and their MP had been violated – and that she was therefore as much of a victim as any MP.

Lib Dem MPs were caught making unflattering remarks. But what they said was mild indeed compared to some of the expletive-deleted comments offered by Labour Ministers over the years about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Some of us made complimentary remarks about our Tory colleagues, but these failed to make it into the reports.

This was an attempt to undermine the Liberal Democrats and destroy the Coalition. Why weren’t Tory Ministers targeted, to discover what they felt about their policies which have been shelved in the interests of the Coalition? Opponents of the Coalition feel cheated out of a ‘real’ Tory Government, one which would be ideologically extreme on matters such as Europe.

They hate the fact that, despite the doomsayers’ predictions of failure from Day One, the Coalition has bedded down well.

You can read Norman’s article in full here.

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3 Comments

  • I find it more than a little amusing that Mr Baker seems to see his position and that of other Coalition LibDem MPs as analogous to Helen Suzman – a giant of a Liberal in South Africa who risked her life daily opposing apartheid – see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Suzman

    I am further intrigued by Mr Baker’s article in MoS and had to go back to the original DT article as I see no mention in the MoS apologia of what I consider to be the most important ‘revelation’ in the original DT article which was that Mr Baker opposed the rise in tuition fees but voted for it in Parliament despite telling the DT journos that he almost resigned over the issue.

    With feelings that strong why didn’t Mr Baker abstain. He uses the tent analogy and whether not being able to hold your water – or principles I would suggest – matters more if you are inside the tent rather than outside. I think this attempt to muddy the tent floor will be treated by the bulk of students and their families with the contempt it deserves.

    He also peddles the LibDem spin that the DT reporters have destroyed the sanctity of the constituency surgery by what they did. The sanctity is actually a one-way process to protect the constituent. MPs do not have the luxury of running off at the mouth when holding a surgery. They establish the problem and determine whose remit it is to act on the issue and set the wheels in motion to resolve matters or, as sometimes happens, they have to advise the constituent that nothing can actually be done.

    Of course, in my experience, most MPs are very loth to do the latter in case they lose a vote. Government Ministers have another duty to publicly defend policies agreed in Cabinet and not to run them down in front of constituents or even DT journos not part of the Lobby System – of course personally I think the Lobby System sucks and should be scrapped.

    Another thing Mr Baker hasn’t confirmed is his position on the child benefit scenario put to him by the DT reporters – is it fair or not? I also feels he doth complaint a bit too much that his nice statements about his new Tory bedmates weren’t used in the DT article – they were and I must admit they did surprise me a little as I used to have quite a bit of respect for Mr Baker and his past campaigning which was principled on a lot of issues. However, I still don’t actually understand why Mr Baker felt the need to apologise for his comments and thought he might have explained this in MoS but he remains strangely silent on the matter

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12064969 is worth a look as it seems like a very top-down way of creating party policy from although I can understand how useful a device it might be in fusing the two parties into one. However, I wonder how many LibDem party members know this is underway and being worked on?

    The link contains the statement: ‘Conservative and government policy chief, Oliver Letwin, claims in the Guardian newspaper that a “deep bond of trust” has been formed between both coalition parties – whose policies, he said, have a huge amount of overlap.

    ‘The coalition was working on a range of policies that had the full backing of both parties, which it planned to announce mid-term once the current tranche of major policies had become law.’

  • Tony Greaves 27th Dec '10 - 5:18pm

    ‘The coalition was working on a range of policies that had the full backing of both parties, which it planned to announce mid-term once the current tranche of major policies had become law.’

    This is at a very early stage and in the Liberal Democrats will be subject to considerable discussion within the party (not just in parliament). I can’t say what the Tories might do.

    Tony Greaves

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