The Prince of Darkness has made a rare foray into the light of public life. He uses
an article in today’s Times (£) to do a little waspish mischief about the coalition and the Liberal
Democrats. He writes:
‘The Lib Dems are beginning to behave like an internal opposition. Staking out positions in the media, drawing public lines in the sand and making threatening noises when something is not to their liking is not the way to address their political problems of the past year. These led to their trouncing in the May elections and the AV referendum. The public formed the view that the Lib Dems were in too deep with the Conservatives, forcing them to renounce policies that were dear to them and betraying many, if not most, of those who voted for them. Such is the price a party pays when it spends ten years attacking Labour from the left only to jump into bed with the Conservatives at the first opportunity. Being disagreeable and petulant now is not the way for Mr Clegg and his colleagues to put things right… Since May, Mr Clegg has succeeded in looking less meek and hard done-by. He has found a stronger voice and has benefited from this. But if he and his colleagues forget their collective responsibility to make the coalition work, and that government by hissy fit is not the way to make good policy, they will be as much the losers as everyone else. Except, of course, Labour.’
As you’d expect, the coalition works best when the two parties are broadly in agreement. Today, for instance, Crispin Blunt and Ken Clarke have stiffened community sentences in line with proposals that originated with Nick Clegg last week. But equally, there is incoherence when the parties’ look to their own constituencies. The spat over maintaining the 50p rate is a case in point, as are the enterprise zones identified last week. Many of the new zones were created in areas remarkably close to those targeted by the Tories at the last election. The Liberal Democrat held marginal St. Austell and Newquay had its bid accepted, while Labour-dominated Newcastle and Gateshead was left high and dry. Nick Clegg is visiting industries and drumming political support in the provinces today. He promised that the government had “single minded” focus on fostering growth in inner cities. Where did he make these remarks? You guessed it: Newcastle, where the Lib Dems have just lost control of the city council.
This encapsulates the Lib Dem’s Catch-22: they are the junior partner in success and the limp internal opposition in failure. Either way you look at it, Labour seems likely to benefit, providing its alternative vision is credible: a point of which Lord Mandelson is keenly aware.
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