David Cameron has made a cheeky bid for warmer relations with the Liberal Democrats and the Green party, in a posting on his blog. Vince Cable has already snubbed this cheap publicity stunt. He says:
The Liberal Democrats will continue to work with other parties on issues where we have common ground and can work together in the national interest. However, this is not a serious proposal and David Cameron clearly lives in cloud cuckoo land.
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16 Comments
Well said Vince!
As long as he doesn’t start saying things like “Coalition is not even on the agenda” (c) Paddy Ashdown 1997-99
If it’s a “cheeky” bid, should the appropriate riposte to Cameron be “touch my bum”?
Only asking …
What this does highlight is that at a time when the Tories are attempting to be “liberal”, we do not have a strong critique of what they stand for. No doubt the Tories continue to have a privatisation agenda to make possible their tax cuts, but we rarely hear the Lib Dems attack them for it.
So: faced with the most authoritarian Labour government ever, with unchecked plans to ID card the population, with a demonstrable failure of the tax-spend-control socialist model: the reaction of the LibDems (what is your central political narrative, again?) to the popular, successful liberal Tory leader is: Vote Yellow – Get Brown. You presumably actively want to lose your southern seats?
Not at all.
Faced with the most authoritarian Labour government ever, there’s all the more reason not to jump into bed with someone with as dodgy a record and – like Labour – with a record of sounding ‘liberal’ to get elected. Or have you forgotten how everyone used to say how ‘liberal’ New Labour were when they were criticising an appallingly authoritarian Tory government?
Have you never heard the expression ‘once bitten, twice shy’? We’re not going to take Tory rhetoric at face value. We don’t trust either of you conservative parties as far as we can throw you.
I see that the Liberal Cameron was calling on Banks and Building Societies to ease the blow for Mortgage customers when their fixed rate deals come to an end.
I thought the Tories were in favour of less intervention in business?
While I can’t pretend to know what the Conservatives stand for any more, it is safe enough to bet that they believe in what they have always believed in.
Gordon Brown and David Cameron both have the same legend scratched on their identification discs: “Answers to the name of ‘Cheney’s Poodle’.”
I don’t think the Lib Dems want to burn all their bridges with the Conservatives just yet, seeing as attacking Labour may well be the best election strategy for the Lib Dems in 2009/2010 rather than trying to claw at the gains made by David Cameron.
David Cameron: ‘I’ve always believed that political parties, … should work together in areas where they agree.”
It must be obvious by now that Cameron is the biggest liar in the Commons. First, the Conservative party doesn’t have any policies. While second, when has the Conservative party ever been in agreement with the Liberal party over any important area of policy?
In fact why should we allign ourselfs with Labour or Cameron? Labour MPs are meerely Conservatives with red ties. Why should Cameron’s pathetic attempt to dirupt the party be of any significance. We should be proud to be principled and we should continue, even if it is unpopular, to oppose both parties. If we are to allign ourselfs with others parties, we should look for support from smaller parties. Those we actually have something in common with.
I expect Vince is wisely dodging playing up the decentralisation line too much, for fear of it being highlighted where it conflicts with other areas of policy.
Such as party support for the EU Reform Treaty, for example, which passes more decision-making from national governments to the EU’s central institutions (albeit giving parliaments more of a say in the EU process on those decisions). Still, the broad direction is clear.
It’s unlikely the Tories would miss that open goal to cause embarrassment. It’s about time something was done about this policy conflict problem anyway as it’s not helping our reputation for coherence.
Surely it’s high time for a ‘grand’ coalition of Nu-Lab-Cons? How about a fantasy/nightmare cabinet competition:
Chancellor – Gideon Osbourne
Home Seccy – Jack Straw
Foreign Secretary – John Redwood
Education – Hazel Blears
Health – Nicholas Soames
etc
The possibilities are endless …
You may not like this now, but you lot are just about to elect Nick Clegg as Leader. Unlike Chris Huhne who has an irrational hatred of Cameron, Nick WILL work with David in the event of a hung pParliament – and he wil drop any silly ideas about demanding PR. Its time Lib Dems got real and prepared for the inevitable Cameron/Clegg alliance.
Tim @14. Thanks for the laugh.
“he wil drop any silly ideas about demanding PR”
Given that he made it a central part of his speech at the Hustings I went to, and it’s reported as same at the others, I think you may be getting something a little wrong there.
We don’t want PR. We want STV. STV is a better voting system, improves turnout and returns power to the electorate from the party machinery. That it also gives a more proportional result is an added bonus, as Australia shows, it doesn’t always favour smaller parties, but it does give the voters real control.
Speaking as someone who was advocating an agreement with the Tories nearly two years ago, and who is also on the notional Left of the party, I care not, but Cameron needs to actually get serious and get real if he wants real co operation, and that means not launching stunts and saying that the initiative will be “led by the Conservatives” before he’s even got any agreement—that’s instant “no way” from any serious Lib Dem, he’s got no idea how a democratic party works, and it shows.
Shame, if he had a few more brain cells, we’d likely already be working with them on more issues, and more publicly. Ah well. Unlike many Tories in both their main wings, he’s got no principles at all, and that’s his biggest problem, even Boris has more of a sense of what he believes in that Chameleon Dave.