A big, open, comprehensive offer to Nick Clegg

Regular LabourList readers will know that I’m not a fan of the Liberal Democrats. I’ve rarely disguised my contempt for their hypocrisy, gall or ability to argue two opposing points at the same time. They’re currently providing cover for the most right wing government in my lifetime. They’ve betrayed millions by enacting policies that are the opposite of those they campaigned on and for little tangible return besides ministerial cars and red boxes.

But there’s something I loathe even more than the Liberal Democrats, and that’s a Tory government. Nick Clegg and his party hold the key to either ending or sustaining Cameron’s Premiership. So it’s time to make a big, open and comprehensive offer to the Liberal Democrats.

In recent days, we’ve seen what appears to be the most pronounced and profound disagreement between the coalition “partners” to date. It wasn’t over the NHS, cuts that will hit disabled children, an economic plan that provides little growth or even that former shibboleth tuition fees. It was over Europe. It may not be the issue that we’d have liked to have seen the coalition at war over (my preference would have been for the Lib Dems to come to their senses on the economy), but – to paraphrase Rahm Emmanuel – Labour shouldn’t let a good coalition crisis go to waste. Ed must make Clegg an offer that he can’t refuse.

The contours of any Miliband/Clegg deal would by necessity be contentious. Although there are places where a Labour agenda rubs up against what we might presume to be a Lib Dem agenda, there aren’t huge areas of overlap. The conceit held by many Labour people (the cause of much anti-Lib anger since May 2010), was that the Lib Dems were just Labour-lite. Events since have proved this to be far from true. Two very different parties. Two very different sets of priorities. But there are some areas which could see agreement.

Europe would be the obvious place for Ed to start. Miliband could offer Clegg the chance to govern with a party that – while not Europhile – is certainly not Europhobic. Electoral reform may look dead as the proverbial dodo right now, but Miliband could offer to resurrect it through a new commission committed to producing a more proportional system by 2015. Party funding could also be tackled – neither party fares well from the current system – and a deficit reduction plan that is slower and more targeted could be offered. NHS “reform” could be turned around before it’s too late, and welfare reform could start from the principle of protecting and supporting those most in need first.

Of course there’s a risk in such a strategy. Clegg would most likely say no. The electoral mathematics would make such a deal difficult at best. It could be painted as a snub to Miliband. But there are advantages too. At least we’d know if Clegg and his party are yellow Tories are not. And such an offer would put pressure on Clegg from below, as a grassroots party who are uncomfortable campaigning on a pro-Osbornomics agenda see that there is another way.

Such a pact with the Lib Dems may seem both unappealing and fanciful. That’s because at present it’s both. But all of our rhetoric about this awful government needs to be backed up by a willingness to actually do something about it, or else it looks like impotent foot stamping. Until 2015, wooing the Lib Dems is the only game in town when it comes to prising Cameron and Osborne’s hands from the wheel of government. And that’s more important than anything else…