Does the end of Lords reform mean the end of coalition

With this government, it is not ‘crisis, what crisis?’ but ‘crisis, which crisis?’ We now have a coalition emergency prompted by the fact that Lords reform has been dumped in the long grass despite being in the programme for government. We have a Tory party crisis occasioned by the biggest rebellion of David Cameron’s leadership and a Liberal Democrat crisis caused by the fact that their first period in office in more than 70 years now looks likely to bring no progress on the constitutional issues about which they care so deeply.

It hasn’t been the usual Liberal Democrat suspects sounding off against David Cameron this week. The Lib Dems protesting are those who have  —  to date  —  been most committed to making the coalition work. It is they who feel most let down by the Prime Minister. Reflecting on Cameron’s decision to withdraw the critical programme motion for the Lords reform bill because of backbench opposition, one said, ‘the Prime Minister needs to understand that if he is going to run a coalition, then he must be able to deliver his side of the bargain. If he can’t, well, then there’s a problem’.

There is a feeling among the deputy Prime Minister’s allies that faced with a tough vote, Cameron has not been prepared to do to his MPs what Clegg has done to his. They believe that the Prime Minister has chosen to preserve his own political capital rather than expend it for the good of the coalition. Certainly, the accounts one hears of the Prime Minister’s weekend phone calls do not suggest an all-out effort to win over doubters. I understand that when he rang one of the less committed rebels, someone who should have been turned easily, Cameron simply asked him to explain why he was voting against the bill.