Nick, if you believe in the new politics, vote against tuition fees

By Josh Fenton-Glynn / @joshfg

Labour shouldn’t see the tuition fees debate as a chance to score party political points against the Liberal Democrats. Preventing this ‘Act of Vandalism‘ is too important for that. Britain is not used to coalition politics and perhaps in writing the blueprint we can get rid of the slavish loyalty to ‘official’ party lines that has been so corrosive in one party politics as well as the coalition.

Although I took a little pleasure in reading about how the Liberal Democrats are divided over fees in my Sunday paper, the more I consider it, the more I think this is an opportunity to side with those Liberal Democrats calling for cabinet members to vote against fees and keep their promise to their constituents, rather than standing back and laughing at the ensuing coalition car crash from the safe distance of opposition.

An increase in tuition fees would be a disaster. This change would damage social mobility and put the economy – increasingly reliant on the ability of our graduates rather than physical resources – at risk. However, I am starting to feel that we in the Labour Party are putting Lib Dems in a position where they have no option but to support fees, or we will brand their ministers hypocrites and their party divided.

At this point I have a confession to make: few in our party enjoy kicking-in the Liberal Democrats more than I. The mixture of their negative local campaigning and national hypocrisy made the sport popular in Labour circles long before the coalition. However, unlike other commentators I don’t believe that attacking the Liberal party is the way to hurt this majority Tory government. Furthermore, to seek to hurt them for doing the right thing on tuition fees and sticking to their promise (as some seem to wish) would be irresponsible opposition.

It was Ken Livingstone’s comments on this week’s Question Time that set me thinking about this. We need to point out to the hysterical 24 hour media that it is neither unusual nor a bad thing for a coalition government to lose a vote. Indeed in some cases it has also been known for members of the government to not vote with that government.

I have long argued that open dissent from the leadership shouldn’t be seen as damaging to a party or a government. It’s simply a case of treating voters with respect; being honest and admitting that members within parties – and their constituencies – have different views. From accounts in various political memoirs, it appears that many of our own party’s biggest mistakes have come in the face of opposition within the PLP and government. People have voted for damaging policies because a perceived lack of loyalty could damage their future career advancement and influence. Indeed I recently read that one of our most able up-and-coming shadow cabinet members risked hurting his career for voting with his principles.

Labour should be encouraging a politics where debate isn’t quashed and governments can lose a vote without losing respectability. By rejecting bad policies in parliamentary votes, we will encourage party leaders to rewrite them so that they will better represent the needs of the country – and therefore, gain greater support in the commons. This is how a democracy should work. What’s more, it would be more like ‘new politics’ than anything I have seen so far from this coalition.