The Lib Dems have given up

Aged 8, I coined my basic political philosophy: Labour good, Tory bad, Liberal funny.

Now obviously my political understanding has developed a certain amount of nuance since then. But I still find it hard to take the Lib Dems seriously. I never really knew what they were for, but at least before 2010, it used to be easier to understand what they were against. Even if that usually constituted “this sort of thing“.

I think it takes a great deal of comfortable self deception to look at the state of the UK and think the chief solutions are not about economic but libertarian issues. But that’s why I’m not a Lib Dem.

Labour and the Tories – being parties who primarily define on the left/right axis don’t have fixed positions on the Liberal/Authoritarian axis. Equally, it can be argued that the Liberals – having defined themselves on one extreme of the Lib/Auth axis, don’t have a set position on the economic axis.

This used to be what set them apart. During the Labour government, I lost count pretty quickly of Lib Dems who told me (with no small amount of superiority) that the real fights were about civil liberties. Everything from genuinely vital liberty threatening issues like 90 day detention to weird conspiracy theories about CCTV – this was, according to my (uniformly well off) friends what really mattered. Anyone still stuck caring about inequality, poverty or the distribution of wealth – as opposed to the distribution of votes – was a conformist square.

Let’s be honest – it was annoying. But on the other hand, as Labour went massively over the top in their response to 9/11 it was not pointless. There was a need for someone to speak up for liberal measures and to campaign to ensure they had a place in our politics.

Now the Lib Dems are in government. Now more than ever they have a chance to raise the profile of liberal issues. And let’s face it – having failed dramatically to make the slightest bit of difference to our democracy, it’s what they have left.

But the Lib Dems are going to end their first chance at government for the best part of a century having made no real liberal advances. Sure, they’ve stopped the Tories from doing some stuff – though not everything their members would like – but there is not going to be a single bit of legislation that they can count to and say “we made our kind of difference”.

When I point this out to my Liberal friends I get two kinds of answers. The “coalition” or the “electability” response. Neither are an excuse.

The coalition argument just shows how little faith they ever had in the arguments they made (and lost) about reforming our democracy. Sure they can’t get everything they want, but they aren’t getting anything they want. They are failing the arguments for coalition by failing to show how it might work beyond the shuffling of chairs & a few ministerial limos.

The electability argument is worse. Not only is it everything they accused me and other Labour supporters of being for 13 years, but it is also – unforgivably – bad politics. Refusing to campaign on the one thing that made you unique is now the one thing you refuse to do. Because you’re frightened people won’t vote for it. Well you can’t win an argument if you don’t make an argument.

The Lib Dems have made it clear that their theme for this government is centred around their raising of the tax threshold. There are plenty if arguments to be had about this measure. But none of them are about the promotion of liberal values. None of them move the political conversation off the traditional left/right axis.

In the lifetime of half a government, the Lib Dems have failed to implement democratic change and have given up fighting for liberal values. It’s a joke my 8 year old self would appreciate.