Lib Dems must move beyond local hypocrisy

By Richard Watts / @richardwatts01

Perhaps because the Liberal Democrats are now skirting single digits in the opinion polls, and have members jumping ship left, right and centre, their latest tactic is now to pretend that government cuts are being made by someone else.

There has been a steady flow of defections to Labour or independent since the start of the right-wing coalition. This weekend we saw six Lib Dem councillors resign from the party in Rochdale and a defection to Labour in Sheffield that could eventually cost Lib Dems the council.

While some people will rightly jump ship, or even adopt a position of principled internal opposition, it’s sadly unsurprising to see the party of creative bar charts is now moving to pretend it’s not responsible for the cuts that its government is making

Paul Waugh at PoliticsHome recently described one recent Lib Dem newspaper in Richmond and Twickenham, as “doom n gloom” about conservative council cuts, but then:

“in one of the most schizophrenic bits of party propaganda I’ve ever seen, the reader is told on the back page just why the national Lib-Con coalition is wonderful.”

The local variant we have of this is just ‘don’t mention the coalition’. For example, the current campaign being waged in Islington against cuts to the fire service. People may rightly be worried about the 13% real terms cuts from the Tory/Lib Dem government cuts to Fire and Civil Defence funding over the next four years.

But you wouldn’t pick up on this when you see their campaign against fire cuts in Islington from “Conservative Mayor Boris Johnson and his party colleagues on the London Fire Emergency and Planning authority.”

The problem with this whole line from Liberal Democrats is that, it’s true that Boris Johnson and Brian Coleman are poor managers of the London Fire Emergency and Planning authority, but if they complain about the cuts without acknowledging their own responsibility as a party, then they are lying to their electorate.

The same is true on policing. They were outraged in their opposition to a local cut of Police Community Support Officers in local schools, whose outreach work will now be picked up by local Safer Neighbourhoods Teams. What they neglected to mention was that these posts were directly funded by a government grant that their MPs voted to cut.

I would like to say that this is just a local phenomenon for us here in Islington, but it’s not.

In Southwark, Lib Dem deputy Simon Hughes is campaigning against the proposed sale of council buildings. Never mind that he voted for a budget that slashed the government funding. Never mind that councils are desperately short of capital funding for projects like council house repairs now that the government has increased the cost of borrowing.

Not only is he refusing to accept responsibility as someone who personally voted for the budget cuts, but he even has the cheek to front a campaign that would result in larger cuts to front line services.

And the hypocrisy goes right to the top. In Sheffield, Lib Dems running the council announced, “Lib Dems Swing Into Action to Save Playground Plans”. They have heroically saved 12 Playbuilder playground projects whose funding had been lost. No mention of the role of their own MP and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, in the whole affair.

In happier times, Lib Dems were willing to take responsibility. Nick Clegg even said on Andrew Marr:

“This is our government – this is a Liberal Democrat Conservative, Conservative Liberal Democrat government – whatever way you want to say it – it is a partnership Government; we will take responsibility for all the decisions as much as anybody else in the government.”

If Liberal Democrats want to be taken seriously as a political party, they must make decisions and take the responsibility or if they don’t like them, they must be willing criticise their own party in public.

I’m only happy to say that some Lib Dems are willing to speak the truth to power. One of our local councillors in Islington, Greg Foxsmith, recently said to one of our local papers on tuition fees:

“It is all to do with credibility and honesty. You sign a pledge where you make a manifesto commitment and you have to stick with it. Otherwise, why should anyone believe you on anything else you say”

I hope that principled Lib Dems will prevail on their colleagues to ether take responsibility for their party’s action or have the courage to openly campaign against their colleagues in Westminster.