On coalitions
An aside on Brown leaving: I will miss him. Really, I liked the guy. He seemed as honest as a politician can be, he had no charisma, but was stolid and had an air of unflappable dependability that I value. I think he became PM at a bloody awful time, following Blair’s nastiness and during a worldwide recession which he is certainly not blameless of, but nor can he be considered responsible for. He wasn’t a perfect PM, he wasn’t a great PM, I’m not even sure if I’d consider him a good PM. But I liked him and I think Labour has done a lot of good that is very very much overlooked. So I’m not going to say good riddance, even if I won’t weep for his leaving. I will; say a respectful goodbye and give him the nod for leaving with class and dignity.
I will be looking at the Labour leadership wrangle when I have the head space. But I will say ahead of time to all the people saying “ZOMG THE LABOUR LEADER WON’T BE ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE!!” bullshit to buy a clue and look at OUR system not the damn American system. We do not have Presidents. We have prime ministers. We NEVER elect party leaders, we NEVER elect the prime minister. We elect the parties.
I heard the Lib Dem/Labour talks about coalition and was heartened - and I am now desperately worried about early reports that it has failed
I think a Lib Dem/Labour coalition would be good not only for people like me who are desperately chanting “not the tories not the tories not the tories” but also good for the Lib Dems. The Lib Dems will be much better with a Labour coalition than a Tory coalition. I could talk about shared values, about alienating their base, about scaring off all the people who voted Lib Dem to try and keep the Tories out - but in the end I think the killer is electoral reform
The Lib Dems need electoral reform. Really really need it. The system at present is so strongly arranged against them it’s almost comic. Look again at the results:
Labour: 8,431,224 votes - 29.1% Seats: 253
Liberal Democrat: 6,636,297 votes - 22.9% Seats: 54
That is wrong. Clearly and unambiguously wrong. And while the system remains like this, the Lib Dems (and any party that isn’t Labour or Liberal) will only EVER get any power is during a hung Parliament. And they’re not common. If the Lib Dems do not secure a change in the system NOW then it could be years, decades, before they are remotely relevant again (perhaps even longer. I mean, here the Lib Dems have the biggest opportunity for change they’ve had in decades - if they miss this, why would their voters trust them to ever fix it?).
The Lib Dems have a choice - coalition WITHOUT electoral reform - and have up to 4 years of moderate to minor influence before sinking back into obscurity. OR demand electoral reform and become a viable party for the foreseeable future.
The Tories are vehemently against electoral reform - and for a very good reason (other than being conservative and hating change). Electoral reform and proportional representation especially, will result in governments NEEDING coalitions. And that favours Labour - because there are a lot of minority left wing or left leaning parties that can ally with Labour with minimal grumbling. We’ve been talking a lot about rainbow coalitions - and it’s true, there are a lot of parties that can line up alongside a Labour/Lib-Dem alliance.
Now look at the Tories. How many parties are happy to ally with them? Not so many, not nearly so many - worse the ones that WOULD are often pretty damned objectionable - BNP, UKIP, Christian whatevers, English Democrats. These are not parties the Tories are going to want to align themselves with.
Maybe they could rely on the Lib Dems coalitioning with them now and then - but again, the Lib Dems and Labour have more in common than the Lib Dems and Tories do. For the Tories, electoral reform would be a horrendous blow. Not that Labour would exactly welcome it - but it would hit the Tories harder and, as things stand, Labour needs the Lib Dems enough to maybe give it to them
I’m hoping that, despite all indications, coalition between the Lib Dems and Labour will still work out. I don’t think it will but I hope so. I do not see how the Lib Dems will prosper with any deal without electoral reform - not only do they need it, but we need it