What Labour can learn from Nick Clegg

Like many millions of people I tuned out of politics a little this weekend – it was Mother’s Day after all. But as I rattled back down the motorway from the North East I turned on the radio and heard the newsreader explain how Nick Clegg had attacked both the Tories and Labour during his Spring Conference speech.

Regular Lib Dem watchers will be less than shocked.

Lib Dem leaders since time immemorial have been equal opportunities political attackers. Partially that comes with their territory as a party, the Lib Dem franchise model means that in some areas the aim is to ape Labour, whilst in other areas the aim is to echo the Tories. But you’d have thought this strategy might have been dropped once they went into coalition with the Tories. Curiously though, they’re still trying the trick, despite having been the lackeys of the Tory Party for the past three years. They’ve whacked the NHS, hiked tuition fees, slashed the state and voted for some seriously illiberal justice policy. And yet the area in which they chose to rebel was over Lord Reform.

Priorities priorities.

Yet Ed Miliband and Labour can certainly learn from Nick Clegg in this regard, especially in the run up to the next election. Clegg’s greatest success (the pride before the fall) was the first 2010 TV debate. Pointedly framing the debate as the Lib Dems vs. the two old parties who had been ruining/running Britain, he spoke to an anger at the existing order of things, and reaped the reward. In the end his polling bump evaporated, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t real. , Rather that when confronted with the real choice in British politics – Tory or Labour government – many possible Lib Dem voters went back to Labour. Nick Clegg, of course, made a different choice…

The same opportunity that Clegg seized in 2010 will present itself for Miliband and Labour in the run up to 2015. Clegg and Cameron must be presented as the leaders of one single party – the coalition. Miliband should, like Clegg, refer to the two old parties who’ve run the country into the ground, and reap the rewards. As Miliband’s electoral strategy seemed in large part about squeezing the Lib Dem vote to oblivion in order to win swing seats from the Tories, that makes sense.

What doesn’t make sense is giving the Lib Dems an escape route, and helping them with their “differentiation” strategy. By using clever political tactics, Labour are trying to lash the Lib Dems to the Tories and alienate the supporters of both parties in the process. Yet if such a plan backfires…

Take the Mansion Tax for example. Labour is forcing a vote this week on the proposal with the aim of securing Lib Dem support for a policy they have long espoused. Liberal activists are up in arms at the idea their MPs could follow backing Secret Courts with opposing a Mansion Tax. David Laws (practically a Tory) is urging the Lib Dems to show discipline and avoid the obvious Labour trap. If his party follow that advice, they’ll vote against one of their own key policies, annoy their base and help Labour prove that the Lib Dems and the Tories are one gestalt entity.

But what if they come to their senses and back the Labour motion? Certainly there have been rumblings in the Labour ranks that the motion will be as Lib Dem friendly as possible to try and secure their support. But surely helping the Lib Dems to secure one of their favourite policies – and differentiate themselves from the Tories – is antithetical to the aim of squeezing the Lib Dem vote in 2015 to win swathes of marginal seats?

It’s certainly a risky strategy.

My concern is that there are some senior people within the party who are more than comfortable with the idea of peeling the Lib Dems off from the Tories, in preparation for a result they would be more than comfortable with – a Lib/Lab coalition. But if lesson one that Labour can learn from the tragic Mr Clegg is that differentiating yourself from your opponents is crucial, then second second is that coalitions are, on the whole, a bit of a disaster for everyone involved.

I hope in May 2015, it will be unnecessary for anyone in the Labour Party to even consider one – but I fear that some won’t mind that much at all…