One thing the disastrous election results should do is convince Lib Dems that we cannot rely on the coalition to miraculously bring us victory at the next election. However successful the government may be in its raison d’être of reducing the deficit, little of the credit will accrue to Liberal Democrats.
That’s why the party must begin to devise and develop policies that will demonstrate we really are a truly progressive Liberal Democrat party, and not just “a bunch of bloody second-hand Tories” as one voter suggested on his doorstep last week. We must start to be selfish, and put the Party First. Not the coalition.
For however hard we push, we shall not witness the birth of anything new in the coalition. While our ministers have to believe joint government will be a success to do their jobs with commitment and enthusiasm, we cannot trust mere Micawber-like optimism that something will turn up.
For a start, we have no agreed means of measuring any success. The prospects may be good for achieving financial targets. Savings from public spending cuts and other measures, plus having fattened-up the state-owned banks for privatisation, will leave a few spare billions in the Treasury coffers.
The real test has to be how much can we restore of what was cut. Could we afford to fund tuition fees, for example – or help those really in need?
But just appearing tougher towards our coalition partners, even to the extent of voting down some Tory proposals, is only a part of the task. Let Lib Dem ministers show they are holding their noses in distaste, regarding holding office as duty and sacrifice, rather than purring contentedly from the back of ministerial limos about amending minor clauses.
For while such actions may help change hostile attitudes, much more is required to win votes. Voters will judge us on what we offer, not what we have or have not done. Which is why we need distinctly different ideas.
By 2015, voters will be tired of austerity and ever-falling living standards. They will want something that rewards their sacrifices, and offers hope for the future. Not more of the same.
It will be not unlike a nation tired of battle 70 years ago. In 1945, Labour did not harp on about being a partner of a successful coalition that won the war. They produced a radical, forward-looking manifesto people could believe in. And swept the country.
Lib Dems need to engage in a grand debate about what the party should be saying and where we should be going. To do so means we have to put the Party First – not the coalition government.
It will be our task, starting now, to produce a radical, redistributive and left-leaning platform that will offer a different kind of society; one based on fair shares for all. Not recording a two-thirds rise in the number of billionaires, as we have seen after the first 12 months of the Tory-led coalition.
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27 Comments
There is a natural divergence point as and when economic growth resumes, since the Tories will clearly want to start cutting taxes for the better off (reducing higher rate taxes etc.), whereas we will be looking toward a more redistributive approach and renewed investment in public services
Spot on. Our ministers like to say “I didn’t get involved in politics to cut public spending”. in which case given the opportunity should it arise in the future (a big assumption I know), then we should restore those cuts when we get a chance. Because a lot of those cuts look pretty unacceptable to me.
Hasn’t the overwhelming lesson of Bristish politics since 4 May 1979 been that the British don’t actually want a “radical redistributive and left-leaning platform”? The Tories didn’t want it, and Labour only got back in when they didn’t offer it.
One starting point would be to challenge the premise of the government’s “Red Tape Challenge” that a lot of current legislation (including the Climate Change Act, the Wildlife and Countryside Act and the Equality Act) should be scrapped (the government’s default position with ministers who wish to retain laws left to argue the contrary).
LibDems should say that, whilst of course we should scrap bad laws, many laws are in place for excellent reasons, to ensure safety, to protect the environment and to promote fairness and decent standards.
I find it bizarre that Nick Clegg and his Ministers, who voted for the Climate Change Bill only a few years ago, are now proposing that (as a default position) it should be scrapped!
“By 2015, voters will be tired of austerity and ever-falling living standards. They will want something that rewards their sacrifices, and offers hope for the future. Not more of the same.”
No-one is forecasting there will be no rises in real incomes before 2015 – that is just not going to happen. What is hurting people at the moment is commodity price rises and VAT, both of which are one-off factors which by next year are likely to drop out of the equation. As long as inflation comes down as expected, from next year onwards, real incomes will stabilise and begin to rise again.
However, I agree that we even if by some miracle achieve all we set out to do (protect the most vulnerable from the real impact of cuts, cut taxes for the poorest with the £10,000 personal allowance, make further steps towards a green economy, enact at least some constitutional reform) we will not get any boost from that.
Why? Because people vote based on what you promise them for the future, rather than what has happened in the past. This is amply demonstrated by Labour’s polling performance, which despite the fact that they ruined our economy, education system and public finances, has revived on the basis of effectively denying the need for a cuts programme. So what should Liberal Democrats be promising for the future in 2014/15?
First off, I would say the £10,000 personal allowance will turn out to be quite revolutionary for millions of people. Not just those already in work, but those moving from unemployment into a job. It will really make work pay, especially in more depressed regions where low paid jobs in services and manufacturing are very common. We need to capitalise on this by raising the bar to say £13,000 or £14,000, but if the public finances allow, we should avoid adjusting the other thresholds so that everyone benefits slightly across the income scale, so widening the beneficial impact.
Secondly, on tax we need to focus on how we differentiate ourselves from the Tories. They will want to drop the 50% band. We should oppose this unless it is replaced by a mansion tax or similar measure to make sure the money is recouped for other purposes. Any points on which they have blocked progress e.g. closing down tax havens etc. should be highlighted and used against them.
Thirdly, we should state quite clearly that having got down public spending to 40% of GDP, the priority is to invest in our economy, not to cut taxes for the rich. This means increased infrastructure investment, especially in transport and energy, a big boost to the scope of the green bank and further funds to encourage private sector investment outside London and the South East.
Improving public transport and bringing back the railways into public ownership should also be a priority task. By the time of the next election, rail fares will have reached even more stratospheric levels and the complete failure of privatisation will be even more evident than it is now. We just need to break out of the ideological corner into which we have painted ourselves and admit that when the private sector fails, the government has to step in and do something. We did it with the banks, so why not in public transport, which is just as vital for society?
Finally, the whole area of constitutional reform, particularly of party funding, remains vital. I predict any progress here in the next four years will turn out to be minimal. We will need to highlight how the Tories are predominantly funded by the banks and rich tax avoiders and how they have blocked much needed reform in order to favour their own interests.
In short, I agree with Jonathan Hunt. There will be plenty of achievable goals we can aim for and we need to start thinking now what these are going to be.
I think that ordinary people don’t want a radical social liberal agenda because the prevailing truism of the day is that the system we have works. Instead capitulating to the idea, we should counter it, make much more of the gulf between the earnings of failed trust-funders and bankes and you and me. Even the daily Mail gets behind that easy to grasp theme.
the advantage the Lib Dems have over Labour in the redistributive Tax reform argument is (a) they managed it even in a Conservative coalition (b) They are not tainted by association with the Trade Union Movement and thus can by-pass many conservative newspaper criticism. No one can say that the Lib Dems are going to hand back power to the trade unions. So the Tories central bogeyman has gone.
The leadership of the Lib Dems doesn’t need to make a stand on the NHS. It’ needs to say to it’s voters and potential voters ” look we’re trying, but we’re stuck with Osbourne, and he can’t get the economy right, we think he’s wrong for the country”‘ Pin the failing policies on the Conservatives. Osbourn isn’t a good performer, he’s squeaky and prone hysteria. The point is, he is failing. The standard-issue Tory truth of Cut and hope is delivering a weaker economy, higher cost of living and growing anger. There are also too many educated people employed in the Public Sector to push the idea that this is a hotbed of violent protest. These are social workers and teachers, office workers and doctors. Liberals not socialists.
And also this is what a lot of us believe in. You can’t just have power for the sake of it.
@ John
Totally agree with you about so-called ‘red tape’. Clearly there are some laws that need simplifying etc. but most them are there for a reason. There is a whole load of BS coming out of some of the nastier quarters of the right like the Institute of Directors about how ‘red tape’ is stopping investment and employment. How come this never seems to stop economies like Germany, Sweden etc. powering ahead?
There are some really unpleasant ideas coming out of the whole ‘anti red tape’ agenda which would remove necessary protections for workers and the environment and we need to come down like a ton of bricks on them. I did not become a member of the Liberal Democrats to support moves to take people’s workplace protection away and ruin the environment.
The last paragraph…
‘It will be our task, starting now, to produce a radical, redistributive and left-leaning platform that will offer a different kind of society; one based on fair shares for all. Not recording a two-thirds rise in the number of billionaires, as we have seen after the first 12 months of the Tory-led coalition.’
…is bang on.
The problem is that actions speak louder than words, and we are part of a right – wing coalition government which wants to redistribute the wealth of the nation from the working and middle classes to the upper class, as witnessed by ‘a two-thirds rise in the number of billionaires’ at the same time as a fall in average earnings.
Many people on this site keep saying, ‘things are different, we’re in government now’ usually when excusing the abandonment of yet another pledge or principal.
I agree – things are different – when we get to the next election we will have a record in government to defend, and the only people impressed with it will be Tory supporters who may politely applaud us before voting Tory.
The left – leaning Guardian / Independent reading voters (in my experience the core of our support) who abandoned the LibDems for Labour or the Greens at the local elections will not be impressed with this record.
It doesn’t matter how left wing our manifesto is if we have that baggage.
And with regard to those ‘purring contentedly from the back of ministerial limos’, don’t be surprised if you see quite a few of them joining the Tories in the not too distant future – Danny Alexander (for one) is practically there already.
A brilliant piece. I totally agree, but do the LibDems in government see it that way?
Is this is what is meant by a truly progressive Party – nice to see the principles of democratic centralism continue to apply! ! What happened to the LibDem leader in Nottingham who expressed similar dissent?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-13385905
re the LibDem council leader in Nottingham it looks like someone is out to get him!
http://nottinghamlibdems.org.uk/en/article/2011/485919/lamp-post-misses-gary
The LibDems suffered because of the cuts in public spending.Many left the Labour Party for going to far to the Right.You only have to look at what happened to Labour in Scotland to realise that.That is why there are more SNP’s in power now.
It looks like you are heading the same direction.Chasing the middle classes and forgetting about those at the bottom.To allow the press to say at the behest of Tory Party that those on State Benefits are Benefit Scrounging Scum.None of you stood up for the very poor.
You support IDS saying it does not help the poor giving them money.Well does it help the rich by giving them tax breaks.
JobSeekers Allowance Sanctions are Growing.Leaving some people with no money at all.You will undoubtedly say they must have done something to deserve it.Not necessarily so.Its well known that some Job Centres are Sanctioning people at the drop of the hat to save money.
ATOS is banned in some States of The USA for inappropriate actions against sick clients.Yet the DWP is employing ATOS.A American insurance company to test the Sick of this Country.They are kicking people of sick only for then to appeal and win back there benefits.ATOS is earning millions from central government.
If you want fairness at the Heart of the LibDems you have no further to look than the poor.
The 2008 recession was Worldwide.At the end of WW11 we were in a much worse financial state.But our fathers built a welfare state out of the wreckage of War.A country fit for Hero’s.Not one built on the backs of the poor for Millionaires and Billionaires.
How many unemployed are there.How many million.How many jobs are out there.If you want to go on supporting the most Right Winged Government since Margaret Thatcher then carry on.The working class of this Country still hate her yet Cameron was happy to be called a Son of Thatcher.Carry on supporting these Tories and you will become unelectable for a Generation.
That’s why the party must begin to devise and develop policies that will demonstrate we really are a truly progressive Liberal Democrat party, and not just “a bunch of bloody second-hand Tories” as one voter suggested on his doorstep last week. We must start to be selfish, and put the Party First. Not the coalition.
Nothing Liberal Democrats can do in government will persuade people that they are to the Left of the Labour Party.
On the other hand, Liberal Democrats can do plenty to persuade people that they are a band of unprincipled opportunists who are happy to betray their voters, or their coalition partners, if it serves their interests.
I just saw this, and thought it interesting:
http://www.liberal-vision.org/2011/05/11/can-orange-bookers-save-the-liberal-democrats/
I am not sure I agree, but at least it does suggest a principled basis for Liberal Democrat actions in government, and without that the Party is certainly in for it.
Pledge to abolish tuition fees!!!!!!!!! i hope for your sake students have short memories
Whether or not the Liberal Democrats stay in the coalition *now*, I think it’s obvious that they cannot hope to do well in 2015 *as part of the coalition*. David Cameron is shaping up as the most effective exploiter of divisions on the left-of-centre since Stanley Baldwin. If Nick Clegg (or whoever) can’t extract the Liberal Democrats from the coalition before the election campaign starts, and campaign as a completely independent party, he’ll be taking the same road as David Lloyd George and Ramsay MacDonald and the other leaders of “National” parties.
I agree that bashing the poor is not a progressive move. But the big problem with the economy is that it benefits such a tiny percentage of the population, whilst penalising the majority. stress the unfairness of hiking up VAT’. We need to convince people that a progressive tax policy would make them better off and that it stimulates economic growth, because they would have more spare cash to spend. But really you have to trash the idea that you can cut your way out of recession. The cuts have to be targeted and useful, not driven by an ideological zeal for shrinking the state. Too many Lib Dem voters work in the Public Sector to support too many job cuts. It also kills lots of small businesses.
As people watch the economy stalling, prices going up and no sign of progress they are not thinking it will all come good in 4 years time. And the truth is it won’t work,. it will end up costing more to put right, the longer it goes on..
“It will be our task, starting now, to produce a radical, redistributive and left-leaning platform”
No it won’t. That is the (supposed) job of the Labour Party.
It is our job to provide a radical, Liberal centrist platform that enables people to help themselves.
As a non-Lib Dem, I’d say that articles like this are more likely to turn voters off than win you support. I’ve heard somewhere that 75% of Lib Dem policies have been implemented/are going to be implemented, compared to just 60% of Tory ones — is this true? If so, you might want to try and emphasise that, rather than just going on about what you’ve stopped the Conservatives from implementing, which just makes you look like you don’t really have any ideas of your own.
“But just appearing tougher towards our coalition partners, even to the extent of voting down some Tory proposals,”
…will make you look ridiculous. If you want to make people vote for you, you need to show that coalition governments can work. Voting against Tory proposals will make it look like you’re too immature to co-operate properly in government. It might also make the Conservatives question whether being in coalition with you is worth it. Vote down their proposals too often, and they might be tempted to call a new General Election, in which the Liberal Democrats will almost certainly get slaughtered, especially if it looks as if they forced it by making governing impossible.
“It will be our task, starting now, to produce a radical, redistributive and left-leaning platform”
To be frank I doubt that many of the lost voters will return any time soon. If you veer to the left and try and attract them, you’ll probably fail, and just end up losing voters from the liberal wing of the party as well.
“To be frank I doubt that many of the lost voters will return any time soon. If you veer to the left and try and attract them, you’ll probably fail, and just end up losing voters from the liberal wing of the party as well.”
Indeed.
This is a pipe dream. For the last 12 months Clegg has supinely accepted everything the Tories have told him to. Is he really now going to turn around and demand a massive shift to the left? And if he did, would Cameron pay the slightest attention?
Clegg has failed, and Clegg must go. Then let’s have a leadership election, and let the contenders test out alternative plans for the future. My bet would be on a tough renegotiation of the coalition agreement to get rid of the NHS and schools privatisation plans. But we won’t get a Tory partner to agree to a “radical, redistributive and left-leaning” platform, and it will be pointless to try.
Or is Jonathan Hunt suggesting that we should adopt such a platform 4 years in advance as our campaign plan for 2015, while simultaneously going along with policies which lead in the opposite direction for the next four years? That would just be absurd and would make us a laughing stock. We have to concentrate on what actually happens now, not on what pose we might strike at a remote date in the future.
Mr X
I think if the economy continues to tank and unemployment rises steeply, people will demand a change of course. I don;t think the economic model used by The Conservatives is working to get us out of the hole we’re in,. will ever work or is really that popular. Despite what anyone is saying there is no way the situation is in any shape or form like the 80s. No loony left, no miners, 3 unpopular failing wars, instead of one popular one, the newspapers losing their political clout to the Internet.
I don’t even think there is a traditional Left. I think middle-class people worried about their children’s future, their jobs and rising prices are a very different beast to trade unionists.
If we are seen to do well in the Coalition, that could well bring us votes. People could decide that they like how we have done in government and want us to continue, and thus decide to vote for us.
@toryboysnevergrowup
“Is this is what is meant by a truly progressive Party – nice to see the principles of democratic centralism continue to apply! ! What happened to the LibDem leader in Nottingham who expressed similar dissent?”
Platitudes are dead easy, and similar disparinging remarks can be made about Libertarian Tories. The devil is in the detail. What are the objectives, policies achievements we expect from our Government. What we have not had an honest debate about and people hide behind political parties sometimes so they do not have to face this question head on:-
In Britain what type of Society do we want to live in? The truly progressive ideas are the ones that most closely match the ideals of the British People in achieving that prize. Low taxes, and Govt Spending are both incidental to this central question.
“One thing the disastrous election results should do is convince Lib Dems that we cannot rely on the coalition to miraculously bring us victory at the next election. However successful the government may be in its raison d’être of reducing the deficit, little of the credit will accrue to Liberal Democrats”
Ah the deficit, the excuse for everything. Well it is if you believe right wing economists, whose ideas date back to the 19th century. Would you allow a doctor to bleed you or treat you with leeches? Yet we are treating the economy with an economic doctrine which is just as dated. Someone described cutbacks in a recession, as being like turning off a plane’s engines in a stall.
Even if you accept the deficit has to come down, there is still a choice about whether you should cutback. The rich caused the recession, so they should pay for it. It is very easy for Lib Dems to join the Tories in kicking the poor by attacking benefits, and local services. The poor can’t fight back, it is the actions of cowardly bullies, but the Lib Dems have not exactly shown much backbone in the last year. I suspect that your policies will cause a double hit to the poor, cutbacks in the safety net they rely on, and mass unemployment due to the economy stalling. While the city bonuses keep getting paid. Project Merlin, what a pathetic joke that was.
“But just appearing tougher towards our coalition partners, even to the extent of voting down some Tory proposals, is only a part of the task. Let Lib Dem ministers show they are holding their noses in distaste, regarding holding office as duty and sacrifice, rather than purring contentedly from the back of ministerial limos about amending minor clauses.”
Too late, if you accept that the deficit needs to be cut right away (I don’t), then it would have been OK for Lib Dem Ministers to behave in the way you are suggesting. Forming a government for the good of the country, while making your opposition clear to some of the right wing non-sense coming out of this government.
Instead your Ministers seemed to be perfectly happy with what this government was doing. While many of your own supporters looked on in horror. Now that your voters have made their opinion clear, Lib Dems are opposing the Tories on points of principal. Nothing to do with trying to save your own skins as your poll ratings collapse. Opportunistic, unprincipled and pathetic.
I think this article starts out with completely the wrong premise – how the party can benefit politically, when it should set out our intent to offer the greatest possible future for the country.
What is the point in politics if not to govern and create change for the better? What is the point of power for power’s sake?
I’d rather a lasting legacy than a glimmering future. We should do what’s right, not what makes up popular.
Thanks to all who have contributed, and have made good points in favour of what I argue and against. You have provoked thought that leads to questioning one’s ideas.
Let me start with the last. If you take the view as I do that a strong Liberal Democrat presence is essential if only to keep check on those who would erode and steal our democratic and civil liberties (aka Blunkett, Reid, Clarke et al) as well as the other things we once sought to achieve, then what is good for the party is good for the country.
For us to slide back to a situation all our MPs could be transported in a single people-carrier (telephone boxes being a vanishing service) this would be disaster for Britain. That is my greatest fear about relying on the coalition in 2015.
The first commnet from ian suggests a scenario that, to be frank, I hadn’t considered. What if we do manage to conquer the deficit within the next three years? How should we spend the proceeds? The Tories will obviously want to cut taxes. Our role must be to stop them, and start restoring some of the cuts.
How we would do so should be the topic of a more Blues (Yellow?) Skies piece. Will write it soon, editors permitting.