tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3881762807913180318.post2468186872261593389..comments2024-01-23T16:53:02.428+00:00Comments on Mark Thompson: Were the Lib Dems "useful idiots" in coalition?Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00744387583593537268noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3881762807913180318.post-52717198161996166012016-09-20T13:30:36.904+01:002016-09-20T13:30:36.904+01:00Excellent piece although arguably fisking Toynbee ...Excellent piece although arguably fisking Toynbee is akin to shooting fish in a barrel! I would give more credit than you have to the LibDems for keeping a fair dose of liberalism in the politics of leadership and I fear that the coalition was the last liberal government I will see in my lifetime (I am 50). Certainly Mother Theresa's lot are showing a very mean streak of liberalism in any form.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14106405909275151119noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3881762807913180318.post-58196486911738682842016-09-09T11:43:10.928+01:002016-09-09T11:43:10.928+01:00Polly's ability to re-write history is just pl...Polly's ability to re-write history is just plain insulting to the intelligence, but she does know how to pander to her ever dwindling audience <br /><br />The key point from 2010 is that if the Tories had formed a minority government, like Harold Wilson in 1974, they would have called an early election. And like then, the country would almost certainly have elected a Tory majority as people rowed back from their short dalliance with pluralism. At the very minimum I would have expected the Tories to have gained enough marginals, with a campaign as the largest party appealing for "strong government", to form a Tory minority government with a confidence and supply agreement with the DUP. More likely would have been an outright Tory majority.<br /><br />A "rainbow coalition" (which I've heard many Labour supporters even now still cling to as being a possibility) was doomed, as anyone who has worked as an elected politician knows. It relied on at least 4 parties with fundamental ideological differences agreeing 100% of the time. Anyone who has tried to get fellow party members to agree to something, let alone try to work with the intrinsically tribal Labour party, will understand why it was a non-starter.<br /><br />And this all ignores that Brown resigned BEFORE coalition negotiations were finished, which meant that if the Lib Dem/Conservative talks had broken down, the Tories would have formed a minority government as the largest party, daring the others to vote them down, and gone for an early September election when Labour would have had no leader in place.<br /><br />Where Polly is being doubly ingenious is her claims about the PR "prize". Say the Lib Dems had obtained a referendum on it, rather than an AV vote. Academic research from 2011 would suggest that that vote too would have been lost, so it's a complete red herring. She knows that. <br /><a rel="nofollow">http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/no-clear-evidence-of-public-support-for-pr/</a><br /><br />It's a shoddy article, but I expected nothing less from her. She's lost her mantle as the self-appointed heart and soul of the Labour party to the Seamus Milnes of this world and is now lashing out, like a drunk, at anyone and anything.Washttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08506032658589651155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3881762807913180318.post-69646143121003700642016-09-09T09:12:48.822+01:002016-09-09T09:12:48.822+01:00The Lib Dems did not accept the Tory view on auste...The Lib Dems did not accept the Tory view on austerity. The coalition austerity plans were far more in line with what Labour proposed.Iain Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15422191567940230666noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3881762807913180318.post-87119799171848064772016-09-09T09:12:18.511+01:002016-09-09T09:12:18.511+01:00Well said Mark. The one big chance for PR was 99 a...Well said Mark. The one big chance for PR was 99 and it was the traditional elements of Labour that killed it. If Labour really cared about preventing majority Tory governments they would have taken that chance, but instead they did what was in their selfish, narrow interests.<br /><br />What a different world we would have now if Labour had taken the one big chance of our lifetimes. It's gone now.chrisb46https://www.blogger.com/profile/09087298615601249326noreply@blogger.com