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The coalition experiment is over

August 6, 2012 4:44 pm

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The Coalition experiment is over. Nick Clegg’s announcement today that House of Lords reform will no longer be pursued and the Liberal Democrats will not support the boundary review completion prior to the election, marks the end of a process of slow unraveling. The separation began with the conduct of the Prime Minister during the AV referendum and it’s now irreconcilable. They will stay married but live apart. The marriage is now just for appearances.

Government can’t work in this way. It’s internal warfare not coalition. Liberal Democrats and Conservatives alike will continue to argue that they have a joint economic mission. This won’t last either. In fact, that too appears to be drifting apart. Unless the economy quickly turns around, the tensions will become too great to manage. Osborne’s reckless stubbornness will have a damaging political impact as well as an economic one. The staggering thing is the immaturity of it all.

The Coalition could have pursued a unity of purpose and for a while, back in 2010, it appeared that they would. Had Tory backbenches stuck to the Coalition agreement – instead of wriggling out of their responsibilities on a fanciful reading of what particular phrases meant – and had David Cameron been able to deliver Lords reform and behaved with honour then the Coalition might have survived. Now it will collapse in recrimination. Tory backbenchers will righteously attack the Liberal Democrats to an even greater extent. Liberal Democrats may finally discover a spine and start to bite back – Nick Clegg’s tit-for-tat rejection of the boundary review is a taste of that. It won’t make for good viewing at all.

Both parties had the opportunity to keep Labour at bay for a decade or more. It they had put tactics and short-term self-interest to one side, they could have held power in a situation where it is very difficult for any party to secure a majority. It is utterly perplexing to watch the Tories and their behaviour. They have to lead Labour by 10% or so to secure a majority. A failure to compromise on anything means that a Tory majority is now less likely in 2015 and even if they can edge ahead of Labour again they will be dependent on a party that increasingly resents them. Some victory for the rebels. What on earth did they think they were playing at?

All this makes a Labour victory – maybe even an outright victory – more likely in 2015. As the Tories and the Liberal Democrats become locked in oscillating sullen bitterness and public bickering, the authority of the Prime Minister will begin to drain away. He has completely failed to lead and, in fact, has encouraged disloyalty in his manner and actions. At this stage of the Parliament, I expected to be saying many things about David Cameron. The surprise is that the word that seems to be the best fit is ‘weak’.

The calls for a General Election will start to gather force over the coming months from both Labour and even from some backbench Conservatives. The public will start to demand one also. This is not only a Government that few wanted; it is a Government that has failed. A lack of legitimacy and incompetence is a potent mix. It is certainly not a combination that a Government at war with itself can withstand easily.

When does this conclude? It is still unlikely that we will see an election before 2015. The fixed term parliament legislation seems to determine that. Assuming the Liberal Democrats do not commit seppuku then Labour and Conservatives would have to conspire to call an election. What chance is there of that realistically? At the very least Liberal Democrats are likely to offer confidence and supply. It seems likely though that they will leave the Coalition sooner rather than later. So a minority Conservative administration will limp on for a couple of years or so once the Liberal Democrats bolt.

In the space of a few short months, the notion of Prime Minister Ed Miliband has gone from wishful thinking to possibility to better than evens. Today the odds have shortened further. When the great book of political folly is written, the conduct of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats from 2011 to 2015 will cover quite a few of its pages.

Labour can’t believe its luck. The challenge now is not just to appear ready but to be ready. The Coalition experiment is done. A loveless marriage is all that remains. And it’s going to get worse.  David Cameron and Nick Clegg have blown it.  They are young men and will have many years to look back with regret. For the country, it has to endure three more years of this. A novel political experiment has turned into a nightmare. Astonishing.

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  • Mark

    Reminds me of the folk tale about the Scorpion and the Frog. The Tories just can’t stop themselves from being duplicitous and nasty even if such behaviour leads to their own undoing. Very Shakespearian. Exeunt omnes.

    • jaime taurosangastre candelas

      (Speaking as a disillusioned Lib Dem voter in 2010).

      Maybe not.  If you read the coalition agreement, the only explicit linkage is between the AV referendum and the boundary review.

      “We will bring forward a Referendum Bill on 
      electoral reform, which includes provision for 
      the introduction of the Alternative Vote in the 
      event of a positive result in the referendum, 
      as well as for the creation of fewer and more 
      equal sized constituencies. We will whip 
      both Parliamentary parties in both Houses 
      to support a simple majority referendum on 
      the Alternative Vote, without prejudice to 
      the positions parties will take during such a 
      referendum.”

      Of course, I do not know what other non-public linkages may have been made, but that is what is in the public domain. I’m not feeling that impressed with either party at the moment.

      • http://twitter.com/mistyblulabour dave stone

        “I’m not feeling that impressed”

        Not surprised. It’s the beginning of the wilderness years for you.

        • jaime taurosangastre candelas

          Quite probably.  Having discovered my “inner Gladstonian” over the much neglected issue of balanced budgets over reasonable timeframes in the last five years, I don’t hold out much hope of any party promising that for quite a few more decades.  Which is why I make my own plans, not involving anything so hopeful as expecting any party to make good on a promise to pay me a pension at all, despite current promises (and salary deductions).

          A good thing I am not a member of a political party, and have to jump through public hoops to justify nonsenses.

          • http://twitter.com/mistyblulabour dave stone

            “have to jump through public hoops to justify nonsenses.”

            Yes, there are times when it is difficult to think of an upside.

      • Vicky Seddon

         Equalisation of constituencies is fine if it is based on the number of eligible residents  – rather than the number registered.   Otherwise  constituencies with mobile populations are under represented

        • Bill Lockhart

           The number of registered residents is the number of eligible residents.
          If  people decline to join the electoral register for reasons of tax avoidance or inertia, they voluntarily forego their franchise. That seems perfectly just and indeed desirable to me.

          • ClearBell

             Then you are quite happy with the huge democratic deficit that has developed by the population being groomed to be cynical, apathetic, fatalistic and holier-than-thou?

            No you can’t force people to register, but the system as it now stands is not fit for purpose: house to house registering is essential. Time consuming, yes – but it needs to be done otherwise  we are accepting a new version of “rotten boroughs”.

            This really matters – especially in a borough like the one I live in, where the census records are not going to be any where near complete and the ‘transient” population may seem great but is destined to remain – unaware of how representation works in the UK.

      • Mark

        The Liberal Democrats should have known better.

        They held their noses and helped the Tories do such things as introducing high tuition fees for university students and make huge cuts into the welfare budget.  For their sins the Liberal Democrats have next to nothing really to show for their support of many policy initiatives they absolutely hated; in fact their participation in government has probably set them back twenty or thirty years or more completely undoing all the good work done by David Steel, Paddy Ashdown and Charles Kennedy.

         It is hard to believe that for a short while prior to the general election in 2010 Nick Clegg rated as highly as Winston Churchill as a leader in many polls.

        Never has so much been screwed up for so many by so few.

  • DanFilson

    The most dysfunctional Cabinet since Lord Rosebery’s 1894-95 where Sir William Harcourt, who was Leader of the House of Commons, would rarely speak to his nominal boss and instead sat in a window seat looking out of the window. The Liberals were shortly out of power for a decade. Incidentally, there is a myth that Asquith won the 1906 landslide victory. He didn’t, it was his Liberal predecessor Sir Henry Campbell-bannerman who was not a Liberal Imperialist like Asquith and Rosebery, and was severely critical of the Boer War. Asquith himself never won an overall majority, went into coalition with the Tories, was ousted by them, and the Liberals never held a majority in Parliament again. Here’s hoping for another ‘extinction event’!

  • John Dore

    Not sure how you can say astonishing, the cracks appeared relatively quickly. The bigger concern is what comes next, can Labour win? Labour activists have slagged of the Libs massively, could Lab and the Libs work together?

    • http://twitter.com/mistyblulabour dave stone

      “ could Lab and the Libs work together?”

      What were you thinking – Lords reform or boundary review, perhaps?

    • derek

      Any kind of redemption for the lib/dems would be to walk away from the coalition asap and let the tories run a minority government.

      • treborc

         Come on the offers of position jobs tasks which would be offered if the Liberal stick with it are still on the table.

        I suspect Clegg expected problems he expected to be out once the coalition was over, and I’m sure the Tories offered all of the  Liberal gang something or other.

        It will not yet split if it does then I guess a few may well walk across to the Tories, they have nowhere else to go

  • http://www.facebook.com/ian.robathan.5 Ian Robathan

    good post Anthony and if it starts to fall apart it will do so quickly. We have to start preparing now, start getting the funds ready and get selections done ASAP.

    We still have a problem in that wrongly Ed is portrayed as not a leader but how wrong could they be. 

    you get the feeling we need the policies to start coming out quick and the conferences could be vital in all this.

  • http://www.facebook.com/stephen.kelly.904750 Stephen Kelly

     What did the Lib Dems really expect when they sold their soul to the devil.

  • http://twitter.com/all_thats_left_ All Thats Left

    The Lib-Dems have acted in an extraordinarily petty, churlish and stupid  way – even by the standards of the coalition, the spat over the reform of the House of Lords is bad politics and, even worse an affront to all those people whose policies have cost them their jobs and their way of life. Shame on them. I assess the politics of it, and whether the Tories decision to ditch Lords reform is actually a breach of the coalition agreement. 
    http://www.allthatsleft.co.uk/2012/08/the-lib-dems-biggest-shambles-yet/

  • Franwhi

    It’s democracy that’s suffering through all this . None of the democratic reforms put forward in this govt have been enacted and that’s a great pity. Will Labour do better ? 

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Graeme-Hancocks/1156294498 Graeme Hancocks

     ”It won’t make for good viewing at all”.  I think it will make excellent viewing, as they take swipes at each other. Poor UK though. What a pantomine of a government.

    • Groping

      Ha Ha! Agreed. Pass the popcorn

  • Daniel Speight

    Unless the economy quickly turns around, the tensions will become too
    great to manage. Osborne’s reckless stubbornness will have a damaging
    political impact as well as an economic one.

    Was it really so few months ago that the Sainsbury backed extremists in the party were telling us that Labour had to match and specify which cuts to an austere future it would also make? How quiet they now are on their economic plans as the Tories show what such policies actually produce.

    Or is there a Bozier virus flowing through the Westminster bubble? Should we expect friends of said Luke to suddenly pack their bags and fly off to New York because they can no longer see good career prospects here?

    When we look at Clegg, Cameron and Osborne, we should also look at those in Labour who would so easily fit the same mold. All that Sainsbury money still can’t hide this.

  • Daniel Speight

    Unless the economy quickly turns around, the tensions will become too
    great to manage. Osborne’s reckless stubbornness will have a damaging
    political impact as well as an economic one.

    Was it really so few months ago that the Sainsbury backed extremists in the party were telling us that Labour had to match and specify which cuts to an austere future it would also make? How quiet they now are on their economic plans as the Tories show what such policies actually produce.

    Or is there a Bozier virus flowing through the Westminster bubble? Should we expect friends of said Luke to suddenly pack their bags and fly off to New York because they can no longer see good career prospects here?

    When we look at Clegg, Cameron and Osborne, we should also look at those in Labour who would so easily fit the same mold. All that Sainsbury money still can’t hide this.

    • http://twitter.com/mistyblulabour dave stone

      “suddenly pack their bags and fly off to New York”

      Well, a supporter of the Sainsbury/Progress Party praised Romney on here the other day…

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Homfray/510980099 Mike Homfray

        I noticed – and made the absurd argument that he would be more pro-UK, then of course we know what happened……

        • Dave Postles

           The reputation of the UK must be sinking fast in the US.  We once believed that the banking issues commenced with sub-prime mortgages and derivatives in the US housing market, which suggested pure incompetence and ‘exuberance’ (Greenspan).  We now discover daily that the pernicious end of the banking sector has been operating out of London – now with SCB accused of laundering Iranian billions and oil revenues.  Stink?  It’s positively pigshit.   

    • John Dore

      Crap.

  • Alan Giles

    It might well be the end of THIS coalition, but I suspect we are in for at least a decade (or more) of minority or coalition governments. Given the severe problems this country faces, and the lightweight career politicians in all parties (not forgetting the dillitantes like Ms Mensch) trying to cope with them, I don’t think the public, especially the floating voters, have any real confidence in any of the three main parties.

    This weekend Cameron confirmed that his out of touch and incompetent Chancellor is safe in his job till 2015 – a guarantee that didn’t seem to set the champagne corks popping in the boardrooms, the constituency party HQ or even the Conservative press. More of the foul tasting medicine that isn’t working anyway.

    The LibDems are in danger of becoming a single figure rump at Westminster (which might be bad news ultimately for both Conservative and Labour)

    But let’s have an honest look at Labour: what – exactly – does Ed Miliband stand for or believe in?.  Who could hazard a guess?. Liam Byrne seems confused as to whether he supports the coalition welfare reform bill or not. He is such a committed parliamentarian that he was ready to jump ship overnight in Birmingham had voted for a Mayor. Some of the shadow cabinet are so mute it is hard to recollect when certain of them last appeared on radio or wrote an article.

    There is far too much caution, an unwillingness to upset the press. Several  LL posters have called for Labour to scrap the WCA, only to be abused by other LL posters (one in particular). I think Labour is just as divided as the Conservatives and LibDems. It is time to stop this “yes but, no but” dithering and come off the shelf.

    If a snap election were to be called next month, I, for one, would probably abstain, because in all honesty I don’t think one of the current party leaders has a clue. Ed’s star has risen as Cameron’s has wained, true, but as of August 7th 2012 he is hardly top of the bill material – but then, who among the political pygmies  at the top of all three parties is?

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZPXYLRVP4XOIGGDJWAL6HUO7U4 David

      Harsh but ultimately pretty fair analysis I think.  I made the comment in another thread yesterday along the same lines: that should an election be called in the near term the current Labour approach (which has served well to exacerbate tensions in the Coalition) would not of itself be enough to convince voters who would need to see some flesh on the bones (and, as you say, to see whether the bone structure itself represents a horse, pig or human*).

      *with apologies to George Orwell.

      • aracataca

        But there isn’t going to be an election any time soon-in fact there isn’t going to be an election until  May 2015. How sensible would it be to put out detailed policy proposals 3 years before a general election? Answer: not sensible at all. 
        1- They can be repeatedly and viciously vilified by the Tory press.
        2- We don’t know what kind of a mess the country is going to be in by 2015. 
        3- Governments lose elections – oppositions don’t win them.

        • Mike Homfray

          Absolutely right on all counts

          • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZPXYLRVP4XOIGGDJWAL6HUO7U4 David

            Inspiring

    • aracataca

      Green one month – Abstainer the next- Interesting from someone who calls for Labour to get off the fence. Make your bloody mind up.
      As usual a relentlessly harsh and negative assessment of Labour garnished with the obligatory reference to Liam Byrne. What a load of crap.

      • Alan Giles

        “Crap” seems to be a favourite word of yourself and Mr Dore. Together with the arrogance of The Purple Booker, do you seriously think any of the three of you are a good advertisement for the Labour Party?

        At one time Labour supporters were very different to Conservatives but now many of you seem to be down to the same level – arrogant name-calling and complete disregard for anybody who does not occupy the right-wing of the Labour party.

        People like yourselves are very fond of calling Labour “a broad church” but you have a complete disregard and disdain for anybody who doesn’t want to ape the mistakes of the coalition and the dog days of New Labour.

        In your rush to dash into print with a “crap” here and a “bloody” there, you seem to have failed to grasp that I was referring to the three main parties. It is quite likely that there will not be a Green candidate where I live at the time of the next general election. In any event, they obviously will not form the next government. It will either be Labour or Conservative with or without the support of what remains of the LibDems, if, as I suspect, the public are as underwhelmed by the stance and attitude of the three  main parties, it probably will be either a minority govt or another coalition.

        But seriously when I read the ill-mannered jibes of the three posters I have mentioned (yourself PB and Dore) I honestly feel there is little point in voting for a Labour party which includes people whose attitudes are so off-putting. You seem to dislike people in your own party more than you do the other 2 main parties. I suppose it is an indication of how insecure all three parties are that they cannot bear to have any critisism of their fading appeal.

        • aracataca

          One day I’ll become as pleasant, generous and well-mannered as you are.

          • Alan Giles

            Well, you and Purple Booker could make a start by not hiding behind screen-names.

            I think if you want to insult people (like PB does by calling them “mad” and your liberal use of the word “crap”) you owe it to yourself, as well as those you are attacking to “come out” so to speak.

            To do it as you do, reminds you of those reprehensible cowards who write anonymous letters, knowing they can be as outrageous as they like, because they won’t get caught.

            I may not be “pleasant, generous and well-mannered” at all times, but I tend to treat people as they treat me, and if they start being offensive, using terms of abuse, I am afraid they must expect to be paid back in the same coin.

    • Cpadwick779

      The problem with intentionally abstaining at general elections is, it seems to me, to  render the democratic process into a futile piece of posturing. The impact of the coalition on me has been to cost me my job, my home, my marriage and the wellbeing of my children. I cannot risk the luxury of disdainful aloofness. I – and millions of people like me – need a Labour Government. I implore you and anyone who feels understandably underwhelmed by the quality of Westminster to remember that your fellow citizens are really suffering at the hands of these shabby,  heartless and incompetent bastards.

      • Alan Giles

        I am sorry for your terrible circumstances. I  hope things improve for you

        I agree we need a Labour government but we need a Labour government of Labour VALUES.

        For too long thanks to “triangulation” or whatever other term the right-wing Labour word-jugglers choose to use for it, with the “Us, too” desire to stay in step with the Tory press, even when that meant ATOS and the persecution of the seriously ill and disabled, there has seemed, in all honesty, little to choose between the morality of the coalition and the “didn’t say  yes, didn’t say no” dissembling of the current Labour set-up

        If, in office Labour continue similar policies to the Coalition, who, in their turn, continued policies from the dying days of New Labour, it frankly will make little difference to the poorest in society which of the two/three clones are in power.

        • aracataca

          Just to echo what Cpadwick has said. I have a severely disabled son, he is unable to speak, is doubly incontinent and has the cognitive age of a 3 year old. Since this heartless bunch took office  I have lost  7/8 of the tax credits that I was paid for him by the last ( terrible in your view) Labour government . In addition the public service I work for is to be privatised in November. The contract is going to that wonderful company called A4e. They are currently the subject of a criminal investigation for fraud. When they take over I will not be able to continue paying into the public service pension fund that I have been paying into for over 20 years. This will have a major impact on my retirement income.
          The fact is you don’t give a monkeys about either me or Cpadwick. You certainly don’t want to see a Labour government next time- you’ve said so on countless occasions. You’re not even going to vote Labour next time and the most important thing to you about the omnishambles budget was not the cut in the top rate of tax but Ed Miliband’s response to it. We urgently need a Labour government and we need it as soon as possible.

          • Mike Homfray

            Yes. We can have our internal disagreements but let’s remember that the worst Labour government is better than the best Tory one

          • aracataca

            Quite right Mike. Well said.

          • Alan Giles

            Actually I don’t like to know anybody is suffering or struggling – hence  the voluntary work I do, hence my revulsion at Labour introducing Freud – something which was unforgiveable. Please remember that if Brown hadn’t allowed Purnell to bulldoze it through Parliament (and Hain to start the dismantling of Remploy), the coalition would have had to start from square one, and given the economy not to mention lack of majority, I doubt they would have dared try it. Labour made the bullets for the coalition to fire. However much you love Labour, please never forget that.

            As for A4e. You must have seen the countless times I have deplored these organisations (for want of a better word), in fact, I think I was the one who posted the first link to the fact that they were subject of a criminal investigation, so you are preaching to the converted. What was even more scandalous was that the woman at the head of that questionable outfit was a great pal of the Conservative party.

            You seem to be trying to portray me as somebody who approves of these measures – even the most casual reading of my posts will show you that is a completely false interpretation of my views..

            I can only repeat if we have a Labour government that is too nervous to repair the damage the coalition is doing, and just use mealy-mouthed platitudes (“cutting slower”, “agreeing with three quarters of the Welfare Reform Bill” etc etc), people like you and those you care about will notice little practical difference between the two main parties. I have been talking with and seeing people affected by the Freud reforms since 2009, and of course, many of the measures we are just seeing now were implemented back in 2009 by Purnell.

            It would be nice to think Labour had learned from past mistakes, and at least admitted to some of them, instead of allowing Byrne to twist in the wind, but Crudas is using people like James Purnell, Kitty Ussher, Caroline Flint (the woman who said that the long term unemployed should be precluded from council housing, such of it as remains), so I am not convinced Labour will do much to roll back the errors of the past few years. I think Ed Miliband is a perfectly decent, personally honest man, but whether he has the strength of character or will, to stand up to the remaining Blairite ultras still hovering around the top of the party, I have very severe reservations. He could make a start on calming some of those fears if he were to change his Shadow Secretary for Work and Pensions. But will he? I doubt it.

          • aracataca

            Same old dreary argument. Are you reading Cpadwick? It’s all the fault of Cruddas, Byrne (of course) Purnell, Usher (spelt wrong of course) and Caroline Flint. And tonight’s puzzle is- work the logic of that out. 

          • Alan Giles

            It’s like having a discussion with the deaf.

            Are you denying that James Purnell persuaded Brown to let him institute the Freud reforms in their entirety in 2009?

            So I put an extra “s” in Usher: at least I don’t pepper my conversation with the word “crap” Mr O’Connor.

          • Simon

            He’s right though.

            In the whole history of the Labour Party the Welfare Reform Act 2009 authored by Purnell, McNulty, Ussher, Rooney and Freud et al was one of the worst drafted, poorly scrutinised, cruellest and nastiest pieces of legislation ever put on the statute book. People have literally died because of it and yet Labour seems unable to recognise let alone admit responsibility for the atrocious misery it unleashed upon the sick, disabled and the vulnerable.

  • postageincluded

    Not much to disagree with here. Just a couple or three points:

    “Both parties had the opportunity to keep Labour at bay for a decade or more…”.  Why? Governments lose vote share at elections, Cameron hasn’t that much vote share to lose. All coalitions squabble and these partners have nothing much in common. Where was the golden opportunity?

    “Astonishing”. No, predictable.

    “It won’t make for good viewing at all”. Actually, yes it will. I can hardly wait for the next episode.

  • Alan Giles
  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Homfray/510980099 Mike Homfray

    I agree Anthony (don’t faint with shock!)

    I also think that we need to stop being so defeatist and continue to work for an overall majority at the next election. There are many, many Con-Lab marginals which could go our way

    Of course we still have work to do. I would be more concerned if we weren’t in that position

  • Mr E

    Surely the Labour Party don’t want an election now. I mean policy-wise the cupboard is completely bare isn’t it? Apart from some half-baked ideas about contributions based welfare and mantra-like repetition of words like “responsible”? How can Labour go to the country now when it seems to have nothing concrete to say?

    • Alan Giles

      I think if all three party leaders were to be honest, not one of them would relish an early election. The three parties are so close together on policy that the result would be the same as that of 2010, probably with fewer LibDems, then the fight would come down to who got greater advantage of the LibDem share of the vote – and in all probability it would be fairly evenly spread between Tories and Labour.

      It is in the interest of all of them to hold on and just hope things look better in 2015. 

      I think the general public think all three are as bad as each other.

      My advice to Ed Miliband though would be to make some changes to the shadow cabinet, and clear out some of the underperformers. My advice to Cameron would be to ditch Osborne, who is a total failure, and the LibDems to change leader PDQ.

      • Mr E

        The fortunes of both the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties are now totally dependent on the performance of the economy, which is tanking at the moment. Just like poor old Gordon Brown I would imagine that the Coalition will stagger on like two drunks (who would fall over if they weren’t leaning against and supporting each other) until the last possible moment hoping that some economic miracle might spontaneously happen that would turn around their fortunate and save them. Personally I can’t see any way in the world how such a turn of events might happen but don’t really see any alternative as far as the two parties in the Coalition are concerned. 

        The next few years look set to be dismal.

  • Fi

    Could this bring the election date forward?

    Is the Labour party ready? (That includes me). 

    Is Ed strong enough to lead us to victory: I like what appears to be an ethical approach tempered with a senior politicians nerve; but am I right? Success in politics often seems to be about avoiding offending the public (don’t blame me, I don’t make the rules); so far he has achieved that. What if the election happens before he can demonstrate strength and the ability to wield power, enough to win over the electorate?

    The Tory’s losing the election may not be enough to deliver a strong Labour government. Blair had an amazing mandate and goodwill from the country, we need to be working towards that. Isn’t that our (Labour supporters) job too?

  • http://www.barder.com/ephems/ Brian Barder

    Thank you for an excellent post.  The quarrel between the coalition partners over House of Lords reform and the Tories’ boundary gerrymandering plans does however open up interesting options for both the LibDems and Labour.  Clegg, or more likely Cable, surely ought now to be exploring the possibility of a Labour minority government supported by a rainbow alliance of the LibDems, the Green and most of the nationalist parties under a confidence and supply agreement.  This could happen in principle without a general election: but if that were to provoke howls of ersatz rage from the tabloids, an early general election would be no disaster for Labour, and active cooperation with a progressive Labour government could go a long way towards rescuing the LibDems from the electoral disaster that otherwise seems to await them. 

    By the same token, Labour should have the foresight to recognise the potential benefits for Labour *and the country* of beginning now to collaborate wherever possible with the LibDems;  for example, Ed Miliband and Sadiq Khan could and should offer now to set up a joint working party with the LibDems to work on concrete proposals for House of Lords reform in the context of the UK’s constitutional future and in the light of the outcome of the Scottish independence referendum, for possible implementation (after approval in a referendum) soon after the next election.  There should be several other areas in which Labour and the LibDems could begin to cooperate informally with each other. This would greatly improve the chances of some kind of cooperation with the LibDems if the next election results in another hung parliament with Labour as the biggest single party;  and even if Labour were to have an overall majority after the next election, there could be significant dividends from working as closely as possible with the LibDems, however informally.  The centre-left parties need to work together whenever possible, even when the LibDems are temporarily and misguidedly handcuffed to the Tories:  centre-left government ought to be Britain’s default position, not constant badmouthing by each of the main centre-left parties against the other. 

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    In less than a month’s time, the UK hosts the G8 Summit. With hunger, tax, trade and transparency all on the agenda, the UK has a unique opportunity to show global leadership on these issues. The scale of hunger is devastating. There is enough food in the world for everyone, yet 1 billion people still go hungry. 2.3 million children every year die from malnutrition – to put that in perspective, that is around 16,000 children every day. Or one [...]

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  • News TUC suggests Football World Cup vote should be re-run – Media roundup: May 24th, 2013

    TUC suggests Football World Cup vote should be re-run – Media roundup: May 24th, 2013

    Subscribers to our morning email get the best of LabourList – including the Media and blog round up – every weekday morning. If you were a subscriber you would have already received this in your inbox. You can sign up here. TUC suggests Football World Cup vote should be re-run “The TUC along with its international equivalent – the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) – is calling on UEFA to address the appalling treatment of workers and players in Qatar and [...]

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  • Featured A Northern Tory that Labour should be afraid of

    A Northern Tory that Labour should be afraid of

    By Mark Ferguson

    The Labour Party spends a great deal of time beating itself up over its performance in Southern England. We know it simply isn’t good enough, but we can’t seem to put our finger on why exactly that’s the case. Is it demographics? No. Culture? Perhaps. Lack of basic party organisation in some areas? It’s certainly a factor. But whilst we’re flagellating ourselves over our inability to perform south of the Watford gap (outside of London), we should remember that the [...]

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  • Comment Featured Why we love Woolwich

    Why we love Woolwich

    By Jon Wilson

    Woolwich is an amazing place. It’s where the Labour party was founded as a mass membership organization. The Woolwich Provident was one of Britain’s first building societies. The Royal Arsenal Coop one of our first cooperative societies. Woolwich had the second Polytechnic in the country, created with the aim of providing education for working adults. Woolwich is my nearest big town centre, where I shop and go to meet friends. In the last few days, for many people, its name [...]

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