The New (well newish) British Government

As I have been asked constantly for my opinion of the British Government – specificaly the Con-LibDem coalition I thought I might put a few thoughts down here – for what they are worth.

People seem to want to know what happened during those negotiations to form a coalition and what chances of survival the new government has. I don’t know the answer to either question I’m afraid but I have to confess that at the time, I was surprised at how swiftly the conservatives and liberals struck a deal.

Like many people, I assumed the Liberal Democrats (to give them their full name) and Labour were much more natural bedfellows. Perhaps I’m out of touch though. After all, when I last lived in the UK (in the 1980’s), politics and British society were far more polarised than they appear to be today.

On the other hand, I really feel that had the rank and file of the LibDem party been consulted, the vast majority would have come out in favour of a Lib-Lab deal. Only 9% of Liberal Democrats consider themselves ‘centre right’. 90% of Scottish voters (Scotland is a liberal stronghold) voted against the Conservatives. Indeed, it is common knowledge that most liberal grandees – the likes of Steele and Kennedy – favoured a pact with Labour.

I would say the importance of the relationship between two men cannot be overstated. Nick Clegg and David Cameron are both youthfull, relatively new leaders of their resepctive parties and are prepared to compromise in the face of stiff opposition from within theor own ranks. Obviously, being politicians these people are also natutally obsessed with power and after 13 years in the cold, the Conservative leader must have felt he needed to offer an extremely good deal to the Liberals to be certain of getting the top job. Hence the large number of cabinet seats going to Liberals and guarantees of a referendum on electoral reform.

Only time will tell whether the pact will work. And time is another factor. In a coalition with Labour, it is unlikely that a Lib-Lab government would have lasted for long and would not have been at all stable. There would cetainly have been an election within a year or two which in turn would probably have weakened the Liberal’s bargaining power.

The fact that Cameron and Clegg get on extremely well (these two leaders are from the same generation and elite eductional background, they fancy themselves as modernisers) helped enormously but at the end of the day and probably speeded things up. However, on reflection, the end result was inevitable in my view.