[Politcs] My reaction to that coalition
After much soul searching I have compartmentalised my reaction into 3 sections.
1. The Public Good.
2. The Party Good.
3. My personal reaction.
1. The Public Good.
a. Unquestionably a good thing. The public gave no one party a majority so the logical conclusion is a coalition government.
b. The coalition should be a stable government provided the Tories don’t stab the Liberal Democrats in the back, or front, or side, etc.
c. The public want some Tory policies but not all of them (or at least didn’t want Labour ones) and with a coalition the worst excesses of Tory policies are mitigated by a good dose of Liberalism.
d. The public will see coalition government in action.
2. The Party Good.
a. The Liberal Democrats bang on about PR, which will possibly lead to a balanced parliament, which will possibly lead to a coalition government, so they now practice what they preach.
b. This is a killer for me. No party elected in third place, that supports the Governing party, survives for long in a non-proportional system. Witness the Australian Democrats and others around the world.
c. The party is throwing itself of the Tory grenade and, I fear, we won’t benefit. For example, I bet it’s left to Laws to give the bad news on where cuts will fall. [This was written before but published after today’s news]
3. My personal reaction.
a. This is nightmare for me; I have always seen the Labour Party as the competition and the Tories as the opposition.
b. I don’t trust the Tories to stab the Liberal Democrats in the back; I hope to God there are some honourable members of that Party so we will see.
1. The Public Good.
2. The Party Good.
3. My personal reaction.
1. The Public Good.
a. Unquestionably a good thing. The public gave no one party a majority so the logical conclusion is a coalition government.
b. The coalition should be a stable government provided the Tories don’t stab the Liberal Democrats in the back, or front, or side, etc.
c. The public want some Tory policies but not all of them (or at least didn’t want Labour ones) and with a coalition the worst excesses of Tory policies are mitigated by a good dose of Liberalism.
d. The public will see coalition government in action.
2. The Party Good.
a. The Liberal Democrats bang on about PR, which will possibly lead to a balanced parliament, which will possibly lead to a coalition government, so they now practice what they preach.
b. This is a killer for me. No party elected in third place, that supports the Governing party, survives for long in a non-proportional system. Witness the Australian Democrats and others around the world.
c. The party is throwing itself of the Tory grenade and, I fear, we won’t benefit. For example, I bet it’s left to Laws to give the bad news on where cuts will fall. [This was written before but published after today’s news]
3. My personal reaction.
a. This is nightmare for me; I have always seen the Labour Party as the competition and the Tories as the opposition.
b. I don’t trust the Tories to stab the Liberal Democrats in the back; I hope to God there are some honourable members of that Party so we will see.
posted by Alan Window at 7:09 PM
4 Comments:
I agree with you. However Labour 1997 - 2010 will not go down in history as being progressive.
Indeed. Another reason for the public good is when the Labour Backbenchers refused to deal the Rainbow coalition was dead in the water.
The only game in town was the Tories.
In terms of Party Good, I think that you both over-estimate the near term danger to the Party and under-estimate the longer term benefits.
The Conservatives CANNOT by themselves run a Government that would be appealing to the vast majority of the population. They have far too many 'retrogrades' on the right. Cameron hates his own Party with a passion and rightly so. He trusts the Lib-Dems far more than he trusts the 1922 folks for example. He's not about to stab you in the back.
You have to look further down the road than next week or next year or even the next election. You are building credibility as a SERIOUS Party. When did you ever really have that ?
Save the angst for 2015 -- see where you and the Party are at that point. I think you might be pleasantly surprised.
I SO hope you are right and I am wrong.
He you are proved right I will GLADLY buy you a pint. :-)
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