Tag Archives: coalition

Alex Marsh

Opinion: self-denying … and self-defeating?

By Alex Marsh | Thu 21st October 2010 - 5:45 pm

It may have been a “miserable little compromise” back in April but AV would now appear to be the big prize. The coalition has to hold together, whatever the cost, at least long enough to allow a vote on electoral reform. But will the way we get from here to there impact significantly upon what happens when we get there?

Only those on the inside know what’s actually happening, but there are many competing readings of how things are playing out coalition-wise.

The most challenging reading for many Lib Dems is that the displays of unity between the coalition partners are …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 25 Comments
Helen Duffett

LibLink: Danny Alexander – “People should judge me on what I deliver”

By Helen Duffett | Mon 11th October 2010 - 3:12 pm

Two very positive Liberal Democrat stories today in the Herald Scotland:

The first: Flourishing LibDems cast Scottish politics in a good light reports that Liberal Democrat membership in Scotland is up 18% this year and sees it as a sign that of public acceptance of the party’s role in the Coalition government.

The Herald also has an interview with Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, which charts his progress from childhood to the Cabinet, revealing his family’s deep Liberal roots:

“My mother tells the story of how she caught my grandad rocking me in the pram when I was six months old saying ‘repeat after me, I’m a member of the Liberal party’.”

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Posted in News and Scotland | Also tagged , and | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

The unusual pattern of coalition splits and tensions

By Mark Pack | Sun 10th October 2010 - 5:05 pm

The Coalition Government has had its fair share of tensions over major policy areas, including most notably and most recently welfare reform and the future of Trident.

Despite being a coalition, the tensions have not been between the two parties in coalition; rather, they have been along shifting lines that cut-across parties. On welfare, for example, it was IDS, backed up by Nick Clegg and Oliver Letwin, arguing against George Osborne for sufficient funding to make radical welfare reform a genuine reform rather than a glorified word for cuts. On Trident, Osborne and Clegg have been on the same …

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Posted in Op-eds | 9 Comments
Matt Gallagher

Opinion: is a Labour-led coalition possible?

By Matt Gallagher | Wed 6th October 2010 - 3:29 pm

Now that Ed Miliband has apparently embraced the Liberal Democrat agenda (voting reform, civil liberties, fairer taxation, condemnation of the Iraq war, cleaning up ‘the city’, the need for ‘fiscal credibility’ etc.,) he raises an intriguing question. Could Labour form a coalition government before the term of the present one expires?

The maths is intriguing. Labour currently hold 258 seats. Since Sinn Fein refuse to take up their five seats in Parliament the ‘magic number’ for a majority is an attainable 323. Were Labour to win three by-elections by taking seats from the Scottish Nationalists or Plaid Cymru, and were …

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Posted in Op-eds | 91 Comments
Laurie Eggleston

Opinion: Lent us your vote to keep the Tories out? Thanks, it worked.

By Laurie Eggleston | Wed 29th September 2010 - 2:55 pm

So what are we as Lib Dems going to say on the doorsteps to voters during the next General Election campaign to justify ourselves in reply to the ‘I voted Lib Dem to keep the Tories out’ challenge? I can imagine it will be a common enough question, especially in close Lib Dem/Conservative constituencies where we appealed to Labour voters to ‘lend us their vote’.

To me the answer seems quite simple. We reply to the voters “We asked you to vote Lib Dem to help keep the Tories out, and it worked. Thank you and well done.”

We don’t have a Tory government; we have a Coalition government – a very different thing. In voting for us in such large numbers, our supporters achieved their aim of preventing a Conservative majority. So that means no £1 million Inheritance Tax threshold, no fiddling with the tax system to promote marriage, no brushing the expenses scandal under the carpet. It means instead raising the level people start to pay income tax, having Lib Dems in the Treasury to help ensure fairness in the upcoming cuts, and the cleaning up of our political system. As a party, we must make it clear just how different things would have been if there had been a Tory majority, and the hugely important part our supporters played in preventing that.

But what then when Mr or Ms Hypothetical voter on the doorstep accuses us of jumping into bed with the Tories?

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Posted in Op-eds | 106 Comments
Mark Littlewood

Opinion: Looking through the tea leaves of Liverpool

By Mark Littlewood | Fri 24th September 2010 - 4:50 pm

What a strange few months it’s been for the Liberal Democrats. In Bournemouth a year ago, few LibDems would have truly believed that this was to be their last annual conference in opposition.

My sense of the mood in Liverpool this year was that it matched the political and economic times we live in. Serious, but somewhat apprehensive. There seemed a lot of quiet satisfaction – although never smugness – that there were Liberal Democrats in government, but a nervousness about what the “end game” might be.

A few things truly surprised me. Support for the principle of entering Coalition with the Conservatives was close to unanimous. A straw poll at the IEA’s fringe meeting showed about 95% felt that Nick Clegg had made the right decision in those tense few days after the General Election. The national media were, of course, on the look out for any sign of coalition-fatigue, but seemed initially disappointed – and then rather impressed – about the absence of much strategic dissent.

But looking through the tea leaves of Liverpool, there are some longer term issues which the party will have to address.

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | 10 Comments
Helen Duffett

LibLink: Stephen Tall on how to cure Lib Dem masochism

By Helen Duffett | Tue 31st August 2010 - 8:47 pm

Stephen Tall writes today at Comment is Free that not only is it healthy to be open about disagreement within the coalition, but that it could be good for future Lib Dem – and coalition – success.

He cites the results of this week’s Lib Dem Voice survey, in which 84% of respondents still support the coalition partnership between the Lib Dems and Conservatives – yet just 17% believe it will be good for the party’s prospects at the next general election.

Far from being taken for a ride by the Tories or being carried away by power-hunger, as …

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Stephen Tall

Tax cuts vs Public spending: Danny Alexander’s comments flag up the Coalition arguments to come

By Stephen Tall | Sun 29th August 2010 - 4:37 pm

I’ve been critical these past few weeks of the news media’s obsessional search to put a cigarette paper between Coalition politicians: mostly these have been the product of journalists’ desperation to fill space.

But today’s interview in the Observer with Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander is, I think, significant for the future of the Lib/Con partnership.

… Alexander makes clear that total tax revenue will have to remain at least at current levels throughout the parliament to put the nation’s finances back in order.

“I think the tax burden is necessary as a significant contribution to

…

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Iain Roberts

LibLink: every key Westminster model country is hung

By Iain Roberts | Mon 23rd August 2010 - 6:06 pm

A blog post from Prof Patrick Dunleavy at the LSE on the Australian election results points out that, for the first time in history, every key Westminster Model country – the UK, India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – has a hung parliament.

For the first time in history, the Australian outcome means that every key ‘Westminster model’ country in the world now has a hung Parliament. These are the former British empire countries that according to decades of political science orthodoxy are supposed to produce strong, single party government. Following Duverger’s Law their allegedly ‘majoritarian’ electoral systems (first past

…

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Mark Pack

The developing dynamics of the Lib Dem Parliamentary Party

By Mark Pack | Thu 19th August 2010 - 6:24 pm

Just over 100 days into coalition, it’s becoming clearer how the Parliamentary Party (in the Commons) is shaping up and where dissent is likely to come from in future. As I’ve argued previously, overall the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party has been remarkably united over the last few years. (Even the ousting of Charles Kennedy was conducted with a remarkable degree of speed and agreement amongst MPs, especially when compared with the long-running leadership agonies in Labour and, pre-2005, the Conservatives.)

Coalition is putting that Lib Dem cohesion to the test in new ways and we’re starting to see who the …

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Peter Black

Opinon: two referendums and an election – Wales and coalitions (part 3)

By Peter Black | Thu 19th August 2010 - 11:20 am

The third element of the coalition agreement relates to the powers of the Welsh Assembly. At present we can only pass laws piecemeal. An order passing legislative competence in a specified area of policy is requested by the Assembly, scrutinised by us and by the Welsh Affairs Select Committee and then passed in Cardiff Bay and in both houses of Parliament before receiving royal assent.

It is a long and expensive process not to mention frustrating. The Housing order for example took three years to be approved. The referendum, which is now scheduled to be held in the spring, will …

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Mark Pack

Who is who behind the scenes in the coalition?

By Mark Pack | Wed 18th August 2010 - 11:07 pm

Today’s Guardian has a pretty decent go at covering who the key advisers are, on both the Liberal Democrat and Conservative side, how they are working together, who talks to who and so on.

The piece has been praised by others today, but I only say “pretty decent” because it doesn’t mention Alison Suttie. Talking about Lib Dem advisers without mentioning her is a bit like talking about Lib Dem MPs without mentioning Vince or my diet without mentioning chocolate. Previously for Ming Campbell and now for Nick Clegg she’s played an absolutely key role in a deputy chief of …

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Iain Roberts

If you don’t like a system that can produce coalitions, how would you change it?

By Iain Roberts | Wed 18th August 2010 - 5:28 pm

We have a well understood way of electing MPs and forming governments for UK-wide elections. Not that you’d know it from the comments of some, particularly those opposed to the coalition.

Here’s how it works. We elect MPs by first past the post. Those MPs then decide who forms a government. If a Prime Minister can get the support of a majority of MPs, he or she can form a government. If the PM loses that support, the government will normally fall.

That system has produced some odd results over the years (as do all systems, depending …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 18 Comments
Peter Black

Opinon: fighting for funding – Wales and coalitions (part 2)

By Peter Black | Wed 18th August 2010 - 11:20 am

Previously, I referred to the fact that the Coalition Agreement contained three specific provisions relating to Wales. One of these concerned the drawing down of legislative powers over housing.The second provision relates to the way that Wales (and Scotland for that matter) is funded. This is a matter of some controversy here and the coalition agreement offers little clarity on how it is to be resolved. It is safe to say that the rather esoteric phrase referring to it needs to be subject to negotiation with UK Treasury Ministers so as to establish the best way forward.

Funding has been …

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Peter Black

Opinion: four party government – Wales and coalitions (part 1)

By Peter Black | Tue 17th August 2010 - 11:20 am

The Welsh Assembly is in a unique situation. Each of the four parties represented there are in government at some level. Whilst the Liberal Democrats have entered government in Westminster for the first time, Labour and Plaid Cymru are in their final year of coalition government in Cardiff Bay.

This has made for interesting Plenary sessions with both the Welsh governing parties intent on blaming the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives for long-standing problems, whilst we are intent on continuing our scrutiny of their record.

The Coalition Agreement contained three specific provisions relating to Wales. One of these concerned the drawing down …

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Helen Duffett

LibLink… Shirley Williams on the coalition: Not one bed – two beds

By Helen Duffett | Sat 14th August 2010 - 4:50 pm

The Guardian today has an interview with Shirley Williams, who at 80, continues to work full-time and is active in questioning the coalition government’s stance on academies, health and Trident:

If you give up what you most care about you start dying. It doesn’t matter what age.

Debate within the coalition on the key issues is a positive thing, insists Williams:

What we have to do is get as much as one possibly can of what Lib Dems believe into the coalition programme. It’s no good simply saying our role is to say no to everything.

Williams admits her surprise that the Liberal Democrats, of whom she was a founder, formed a coalition with the Conservative Party.

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Stuart Bonar

Is the Coalition failing the radical test?

By Stuart Bonar | Wed 11th August 2010 - 4:10 pm

One of the many great things about our party is its steadfast refusal to bow to media pressure. Take, as Exhibit A, the sweet joy of being a conference rep and voting down the leadership’s preferred policy option. We don’t care that it will be portrayed by the next day’s newspapers, as erroneous as it is inevitable, as a party split.

We are also a truly radical party. Most policies taken for granted today entered the pages of our policy documents long before Labour or the Conservatives sheepishly followed. Come next month I hope that gay marriage will be the latest …

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Posted in Op-eds | 27 Comments
Helen Duffett

Clegg and Cameron’s joint letter to Cabinet

By Helen Duffett | Tue 3rd August 2010 - 2:25 pm

The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister have issued a reminder of the Coalition government’s priorities in the form of a joint letter to their Cabinet colleagues.

The letter, aimed at the public just as much as ministers, includes a summary of the “central purpose that will guide all our decisions as a government.” The letter says that deficit reduction and economic recovery will be achieved by redistributing power from government to communities and people, and by governing for the long term.

It’s a message, amid criticism of the cuts that the government has announced over its first twelve weeks, that the Coalition is looking at the long haul.

Here’s the text of the letter in full:

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Helen Duffett

How much will coalition change Liberal Democrat conference?

By Helen Duffett | Wed 28th July 2010 - 9:20 am

Party conference rumour season is well underway, with more special guest speculation than last month’s Glastonbury. But whoever’s doing the briefing, it doesn’t seem to be coming from the Liberal Democrat side.

The story that David Cameron might address Lib Dem conference seems to have originated from the Independent:

David Cameron and Nick Clegg are drawing up plans for closer links between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats and senior figures from the two parties will address each other’s party conference this autumn.

The two leaders are keen to cement the coalition and a special meeting of the Cabinet next month will discuss a joint approach to the party conference season, including co-ordinated policy announcements. One option is for Mr Cameron to address the Liberal Democrat conference in Liverpool and Mr Clegg the Tories in Birmingham. More likely, at present, is that other Cabinet ministers will “change places” and speak at their coalition partner’s event.

The Guardian also ran a similar story the same day: David Cameron could speak at Liberal Democrat conference.

– Well, yes he could,* but here are some things to consider:

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Helen Duffett

The coalition “marriage” – should we keep our name?

By Helen Duffett | Sun 4th July 2010 - 9:50 am

In the Guardian last week, Timothy Garton-Ash argued that the Liberal Democrats’ distinctive identity is being lost both by coalition with the Conservatives and by other parties’ appropriation of the “liberal” label:

The Liberal Democrats should change their name to the Liberals. Here’s why. First of all, Liberal Democrats is a pretty meaningless name. That’s liberal democrats as opposed to illiberal democrats, is it? Or as opposed to liberal anti-democrats?

Lib Dems, to which they are usually abridged, is even emptier. The name sounds like the product of an awkward compromise, which is exactly what it is. When the Liberal party,

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 78 Comments
Helen Duffett

David Cameron to campaign against Alternative Vote reform

By Helen Duffett | Fri 2nd July 2010 - 2:40 pm

This morning, David Miliband – leading contender for the Labour Leadership – said that he’s in favour of Alternative Vote reform.

Now the BBC reports:

David Cameron will campaign against changing the voting system, his spokesman said, in a referendum expected next May.

His spokesman said the PM would be asked his view and “clearly his view is that he’s not in favour of it”.

There’s been some ambiguity about whether Cameron being against AV constitutes him campaigning against the reform – the Prime Minister’s own spokesman doesn’t yet seem sure:

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Iain Roberts

People in broad church parties should think twice before attacking coalitions

By Iain Roberts | Tue 29th June 2010 - 4:20 pm

There are plenty of political parties hanging on to their ideological purity, where all the members pretty much agree on all the key issues. They’re easy to spot: they’re the ones that always lose.

The big parties are compromises – broad churches – people who work together because they agree a bit more with each other than with the rest, or simply because it’s the tribe they’re in.

Broad church parties are necessary in our electoral system. Under First Past the Post, you need to get to a certain size to have any real chance of success, and there simply …

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Posted in Op-eds | 20 Comments
Helen Duffett

Simon Hughes’ 10 proposals for Lib Dem MPs under Coalition

By Helen Duffett | Mon 7th June 2010 - 8:50 am

From Simon Hughes’ website:

In a letter to Lorely Burt MP, Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons, Simon Hughes has set out his proposals on how Liberal Democrats should organise themselves in this parliament in order to provide the best supportive but independent voice in a parliament of coalition government:

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Helen Duffett

What does the Deputy Prime Minister do? Nick Clegg’s new responsibilities

By Helen Duffett | Thu 3rd June 2010 - 8:54 pm

As a result of the formation of the coalition Government, a number of responsibilities will be transferred from the Secretary of State for Justice to the Deputy Prime Minister.

Nick Clegg has already been given special responsibility for political and constitutional reform; now Prime Minister David Cameron has listed the powers which will help Clegg bring this into effect:

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 6 Comments
Iain Roberts

All our parties have more in common than we’d like to admit

By Iain Roberts | Tue 25th May 2010 - 11:19 am

Our politics emphasises the differences between parties.

Much as voters say they want parties to work together, to agree more, to be more constructive, those that do it are often punished in the polls and at the ballot box. If you want someone to vote for you and not the other guy, it’s more effective to say how you differ than how you’re alike.

“I agree with Nick” didn’t turn out to be the winning strategy for Gordon Brown – Labour did better when they were shouting about where they disagreed with Nick – and with Dave.

The result is …

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Posted in Op-eds | 7 Comments
Stephen Tall

Daily Mail slowly catching up with realities of coalition government

By Stephen Tall | Sat 22nd May 2010 - 1:10 pm

To mock the Daily Mail is, however satisfying and amusing, to largely miss the point: it is its own best self-parody. Today’s a case in point, as it dawns on the paper that a coalition government actually does mean the Lib Dems have some power. Devoid of irony, the Mail explodes with outrage:

Yes, that’s right: quite outrageously the leader of the party which won 23% of the national vote is set to have more power than an unelected peer. What is the country coming to?

If you can …

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Stephen Tall

PollWatch: views of the coalition government and party leaders

By Stephen Tall | Fri 21st May 2010 - 3:30 pm

Two polls have been published this week offering some early sense of public perceptions of the Lib Dem / Conservative coalition government, and how they rate the party leaders.

Public views of the coalition government

Angus Reid discovered that, overall, 58% of the public strongly/moderately approve of the coalition, while 31% strongly/moderately disapprove – that’s a net +27% approval rating. Approval is, as you might expect, stronger in the south of England (+41%), weaker in the north of England (+14%) and marginally negative in Scotland (-2%).

This breaks down in party support as follows:

  • Conservative voters: 84% approve, 11% disapprove (net approval:

…

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Stephen Tall

Daily View 2×2: 17 May 2010 (with bonus ‘Prophet Steel’ video)

By Stephen Tall | Mon 17th May 2010 - 7:45 am

Happy Monday morning, everyone, and welcome to the first full week of Lib Dem / Conservative coalition government. Let’s get down to the news …

One Big Story

Lib Dem members give overwhelming thumbs-up to coalition government agreement

The Daily Telegraph has a fair-minded report proving that extraordinary things really can happen in the new politics (and in stark contrast to the snarkiness of the Grauniad):

… members voted “over-whelmingly” in support of the deal with no more than a dozen of the 2,000 delegates opposing the deal in a show of hands at the gathering in Birmingham. Speaking after the vote, Mr Clegg said: “It is a big step. There are lots of unknowns, there will be bumps and scrapes along the way”. He said the party’s special conference had taken a “very, very important decision” to approve the coalition “which is utterly new in modern British political history”. .. It is understood the while 100 members had quit the party since the deal was signed – a further 400 had joined.

The conference even earned plaudits from an unlikely source: ConservativeHome.com offered three cheers for the Lib Dems’ commitment to party democracy:

I take my hat off to the Liberal Democrats for the attempt to involve party members – the people who work so hard without expectation of office – in the decision to form a Coalition with the Conservatives. On a number of occasions Clegg met his MPs and party officers in a bid to hear their views and explain what he was doing. Today’s ratification of the deal will help bind the party into the fascinating Cameron-Clegg experiment. What a contrast with the Conservative Party where there has been next to no consultation of the party membership. Coming on top of Team Cameron’s various attempts to dilute Tory members’ role in membership selection it is all very disappointing.

Here’s how the BBC reported the day:

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Alan Pomroy

Opinon: Equality and the new Coalition

By Alan Pomroy | Sat 15th May 2010 - 9:48 am

A glance at the make-up of the new cabinet does not make great reading for equality campaigners. 86% male, 97% white, 59% privately educated and 69% oxbridge educated – hardly a great advert for our diverse and multicultural society, or indeed a state education. In their defence the Lib-Dems and Tories can point to Labour’s final years in office which shows a broadly similar pattern, with the exception of eductional background, in which there has been a definite backward step. Nick Clegg and David Cameron yesterday talking about aspiring to a new way of doing politics – a noble statement …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 26 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Nick Clegg – Don’t take offence at our coalition. Its aims are liberal

By NewsHound | Sat 15th May 2010 - 8:15 am

Over at Comment is Free, Nick Clegg explains the shared aims of the Lib-Con coalition:

The third runway at Heathrow has been cancelled. ID cards have been scrapped. There will be no more child detention. And reform is now under way to make taxes fair for millions of ordinary people.

These are some of the early achievements of a government that had its first cabinet meeting just two days ago. A new government but, more important, a new kind of government: plural, diverse; a Liberal Democrat-Conservative coalition that defies the rules of old politics.

I know the birth of this coalition has

…

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