The greatest political, as opposed to strategic, threat to the
coalition from the Libya evacuation crisis was that it would give the government a reputation for incompetence. As I say in the Mail on Sunday, Labour are looking to pin the
incompetence charge to the coalition at every possible opportunity. The Miliband team knows that if the coalition comes to be seen as incompetent, then it is done for.
Once a government comes to be seen as incompetent, then it is almost impossible for it to gain support for any of its proposals as even those who agree with the ideas don’t trust the government to implement them. Equally, any good news is seen to be fortuitous and not a consequence of the policies that the government has pursued.
The successful rescue of British nationals stranded in the desert and the evacuations
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