Liberal Democrats In Power - A Reasoned Defence of Clegg's Coalition Gamble

OPINION by Ben Mackay

When David Cameron and the Conservatives formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, millions of people around the country had one thing to say about Britain’s third largest party: they called them traitors. For many on the left the Conservatives are the Evil Party, and any partnership with them is tantamount to, if not worse than, marrying the devil. Amidst all the ripping up of membership cards and incandescent rage, honest analysis of the Liberal Democrat position was lost.

The Lib Dems definitely had a bad election. They won only 57 seats. For Lib Dem and Labour voters the much-desired coalition between the two parties would yield 215 seats, exactly equal to the Conservatives and Democratic Unionists. There was the possibility of pulling ahead of the enemy, with a mixture of Alliance Party and Social Democratic and Labour party MPs. This would have left the hoped for coalition with a stunning majority of four. Many people might say “we’ll take it. Anything to stop the dreaded Conservatives!” In the 2005 parliament there were sixteen by-elections which resulted in the Labour government losing four seats. If a similar thing was to happen to a Labour-Liberal Democrat government then they would be tied with the Conservatives and Unionists.

What about the Green party MP, Plaid Cymru and the SNP? They would support a coalition that didn’t include the Conservatives and this would mean the government has the implicit or complicit support of 326 MPs, a majority of the House of Commons. However this argument runs into problems. Plaid Cymru and the SNP are regional parties that are in government to represent their parts of the nation. With a weak government reliant on their support, it is likely they would put pressure on introducing policies beneficial to Wales and Scotland, such as less severe spending cuts in their regions, meaning larger cuts in other parts of the country. There is the possibility that a Labour- Lib Dem government could threaten the smaller parties into supporting their government or have to deal with a Conservative government. But immediately this is bringing a great deal of risk and uncertainty to a government beginning at a time of economic trouble. Add on top of this the list of Labour MPs who wanted Labour to go into opposition and you have got a ludicrously unstable government. I doubt it would have lasted longer than a week. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/7708071/Labour-MPs-fear-Browns-plan-could-destroy-the-Left.html)

So it seems clear that a Labour and Liberal Democrat coalition is ruled out in any way, shape or form. The country needed a government and the Lib Dems had only a few options: allow a Conservative minority government to try to get policies through on an individual basis, give support to a minority Conservative government in return for Liberal Democrat policies or enter into a formal coalition with the Conservatives.

Many commentators have argued that a minority Conservative government would have resulted in another election around now. I think that in reality this would have most likely resulted in a Conservative majority government, 'the worst of all worlds' so say the left. Why would this be so? 1) The Conservatives would have had a lot more money than both Labour and the Liberal Democrats. 2) The Conservatives could easily argue the need for another election was because minority governments did not work – the public would want something decisive and electing a Conservative government would be the clearest option. 3) The Lib Dem vote could have collapsed as people saw that, in the state of a hung parliament, they didn’t seem to do anything. Most Lib Dem seats are Lib Dem – Tory marginals so this would have benefited the Conservatives. It is not clear the Conservatives would win but it seems a likelihood. The Coalition prevents this from happening.

Now, preventing a Conservative majority is one argument for the Coalition, but there are other positive arguments. The Liberal Democrats, like any party, want power so they can implement policies. This Coalition has allowed them to gain a referendum for AV, a Pupil Premium directing money to the poorest students, a cut in income tax for the lowest earners, an end to detention of children for immigration purposes and a halt in the deportation of gay asylum seekers. These are valuable gains. It is true that many Lib Dem policies have been and are being left out of the Coalition. Reversals over tuition fees and how to approach the national debt are hard to stomach and there are strong arguments that these should be fought. However if we consider the case of whether the Lib Dems should have gone into Coalition we can weigh up: a Coalition government with Lib Dem policies versus a minority Conservative government likely calling an Autumn election and a good chance of them winning it outright.