Britain is no longer governed by a “coalition”

The soothsayers’ call of the imminent collapse of the Coalition is a periodical event, almost as regular as night turning into day, which predominates equally on the left as while as the right. Most base their musings on the runes of a parliamentary defeat here, or a rebuff there – all taken as a sure sign that the country’s first peacetime Coalition since the 1930s is destined for defeat. Indeed, the Guardian’s Jackie Ashley argued that a general election in 2011 was “no longer impossible” only to rehash her rhetoric in 2012 when her original surmise didn’t ring true. A senior Guardian columnist arguing that the coalition is on the brink should usually be taken as sure-fire confirmation that the government will last until 2015, but in light of the past week the precarious nature of the Coalition has undoubtedly signalled the beginning of the end.

The original solidity of the Coalition has been increasingly eroded, with the pact now delivering the exact opposite of what was intended. The Conservative Party now appears almost ungovernable, able and willing on a case by case basis to take issue with the government and, if not inflict outright defeat as seen on the EU last week, then scare it into retreat. Poisonous ill-feeling now inflicts almost every machination of the Coalition and is actively disrupting the basic business of government. Take the past week as an example. Last Monday the Defence Secretary Philip Hammond announced the next tranche of investment for the new fleet of Trident submarines, which Nick Clegg duly slapped down as “jumping the gun”. The Deputy Prime Minister surely must have known of this announcement days prior, which highlights that he either knowingly publically contradicted Hammond, did not know of the announcement, which is deeply worrying in itself, or that Lib Dem lobbying is now so poor even the Deputy Prime Minister can be sidelined.

Another example is the new Conservative Energy Minister, John Hayes, who went on the rhetorical rampage last week against the Coalition’s policy on wind farms. Innocuous sounding, you might dare say. But the UK is, somewhat unrealistically, pledged to increase tenfold our reliance on wind power by 2020. The Minister’s wild talk of “enough is enough” – effectively informing the Daily Telegraph he was halting Britain’s wind farm programme – sent him on a direct collision course with his Secretary of State, the Lib Dem’s Ed Davey. Davey denounced his colleague on the Today programme, and thus two contradictory policies now coexist in the heart of government.

On boundary changes too, where the Conservatives still spit venom over Clegg’s intervention, Lib Dem Lords were tabling rival amendments in an attempt to kill off all reform until 2018. The act was only averted when Conservative peers noticed what their supposed colleagues were up to and removed the debate from the Lords’ schedule. The ridiculous situation now is that sometime next year Nick Clegg, in his role overseeing constitutional affairs, will have to present a piece of legalisation that his party and he himself are deeply committed to destroying.

These examples and many more beside all suggest that no such ‘Coalition’ governs Britain any more. Coalition implies two parallel parties ready to work together in compromise, but the past week has shown that there are two completely separate entities operating within government, both pursing two completely separate programmes.

No doubt the Coalition will stumble on; it has defied the odds thus far, but with an increasingly dwindling sense of purpose and legitimacy. The personal warmth that once existed between David Cameron and Nick Clegg can no longer mask serious ruptures at the heart of government, and lower down the ranks the vitriolic anger between the Coalition partners is now palpable. Both will now pray for the Christmas recess, having survived George Osborne’s potentially toxic Autumn Statement, but many within – and many more outside – will recognise that the end is nigh.