I do hope so. I for one am quite excited about the idea of a coalition – it’s so continental, like trams or kissing on both cheeks – and it’s time we showed our progressive cousins the respect they deserve.
Some commentators have been sniffy about Clegg’s overnight success. They suggest that, like Susan Boyle, he’s just the latest craze that the cud-munching herd is stampeding after, or that he is a dangerous conductor for negative, anti-politics sentiment. It is true that an X-Factor-esque TV audition was pivotal for him, but the leaders’ debate was hardly a frivolity. It was a Reformation moment for the British public. At last it could access “the word” of political leaders without the intermediary of a partisan press or the leading questions of BBC interviewers. As David Yelland noted in a thoughtful Guardian piece earlier this week, the extraordinary polling result of that debate was the public’s way of showing just how seismic a shift this was from the normal way that it is presented political choices.
It is true that Nick Clegg is riding a tide of anti-political sentiment, which he is to some degree milking. His latest broadcast shows him walking on a pavement covered with the broken promises of the main parties. It is also true that some Lib Dem policies, such as the illegal immigrant amnesty, go against the grain of public opinion. But that still does not mean that support for him is mindless and knee-jerk. By embracing the Lib Dems, the public is rejecting the two-party system, long thought of as a permanently encrusted feature of British political life. There’s nothing trivial about that. Far from rejecting politics, the British public is making a dramatic re-entry into the political fray by saying that it will not be taken for granted. It is saying that it will not accept the two main parties, the press or the bond markets dictating the parameters of who they can vote for. It is also delivering a shrewd diagnosis of cause for rot that embedded itself in the British political class and culminated in the twin outrages of the financial crisis and the expenses scandal: the complacency and cosiness of a ruling elite which sat too comfortably in pocket boroughs created by first-past-the-post, two-party politics.
This is not to say that Lib Dem support is devoid of positive content. If a bit of media coverage and a smattering of “sod the lot of ‘em” rhetoric was enough to win over the public, then the BNP would have emerged as serious contenders after Nick Griffin’s Question Time. In recent years, the Lib Dems have been quietly banking a lot of credibility through their lone opposition to the Iraq war, their misgivings about the economic boom and their relative probity regarding MPs’ expenses. Individual policies aside, they have made the case that they have good judgment and instincts. Nick Clegg’s rejection of the cheesy politics of “leaders’ wives” and his refusal to pretend to da kidz that he listens to Lady GooGoo on his Podphone has also outmanoeuvred Cameron on authenticity. The public prizes judgement, instinct and sincerity above individual manifesto pledges, surely a sophisticated assessment of what makes a good politician.
If the British public, in its considerable wisdom, takes the Lib Dems seriously, then so should we. As Progressistas, we should concede that many of their policies are basically the things we wish Labour would say if we thought it could get away with it. We should reach out to them, whatever obstacles may need to be pushed aside.
You give the Lib Dems too much credit for being progressive. As anyone living in a city with a Liberal council will tell you- their policy pledges and their actions in power are miles apart. In Islington the LDs have refused to build affordable homes and prefer to give planning permission posh pads for city boys while in Bristol and Leeds they showed anti trade union colours with an attack on the collective action taken by refuse collectors. Vince Cable’s shocking comment that public sector workiers should be banned from striking is just the tip of the iceberg. Tim Horton’s analysis of LD “fair” tax plans at Left Foot Forward show that Clegg and co are already preparing for Bush style regressive redistribution. At least with the Tories it is clear that they are the bad guys. Liberal Democrats are Thatcherite wolves in progressives clothing. Labour supporters should not give them the time of day. Check out my blog post on the party here bit.ly/5tofightlibdems
A pity Gus Baker is not prepared to justify the Blairite unprovoked aggression against either Iraq or Afghanistan, or for that matter to defend the wonderful Northern Aliance warlords who it seems (More 4 last night and Coomaraswamy of UNICEF), are practising on an increasing scale the sordid child abuse, popular resentment against which triggered the triumph of the Taliban in 1996-7. Ah well,” paedophile bastards but at least they are our paedophile bastards” to paraphrase FDR. Let us hope Alex Bigham submits a question about WMDs to the foreign policy debate tomorrow evening: that should give Gordon a chance to demonstrate leadership…..
And still the Ba’ath and Taliban apologists blather on as if it is the only issue left on the planet. Did they justify Stalinism in the same way I wonder. No I don’t, I know they did! We’re talking a pact with the Lib Dems, heaven forbid! It is about time Labour launched its leaflet showing a map of the country and above a big arrow: “Lib Dems-cannot win here.” Look at the evidence of the Lib Dems in local goverment as has already been suggested and you will clearly see that what they say is not what they do.