Under the collective responsibility principle of cabinet government, I can't really see what options Lib Dem ministers have but to agree with and even argue in favour of government policy. As they're the junior partner, that inevitably means arguing in favour of Tory policy most of the time
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Hmm - I think you're right that this is a problem with coalitions and cabinet government as currently construed; easier in countries where the executive is seperate from the legislature. But it's a flexible thing; under Blair, all the decisions were taken by the Blair/Mandelson axis and the rest of Cabinet made to go along with them. You might as well avoid the formality and save on biscuits if you're going to do that.
Agreed that things look very bad for the LDs if an election were to be held now. What happens in 5 years depends very much on how the economy is then and whether they got the AV vote through; if they do it might well increase the bleedoff of idealists to the Greens.
"If policy A were really the same as policy B, it should be equally possible to get it passed, and wouldn't attract the ire of the public. "
You're assuming that the public behaves rationally. Or even that individual people do.
Agreed on most of the rest, though. I can see an argument for "presenting a united front" on the basis that if the coalition doesn't appear productive and decisive, nobody has any hope of any kind of PR proposal for a long time (simple voting reform, as proposed, too? Not sure.). But, that's one aspect versus a whole load of things on the other side...
I think it's unrealistic to expect that the liberl democrats will not conceed some points to the conservative point of view - that is how a coalition works. Yes the LDs made some manifesto pledges during the election - on the grounds of them being soley in power. Since they are not soley in power, the can vote along their manifesto lines - at which point nothing can be acheived, since no party has a majority, or they can agree to support the conservatives in some areas *even if they disagree* in return for the conservatives supporting them in some areas
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Agreed that things look very bad for the LDs if an election were to be held now. What happens in 5 years depends very much on how the economy is then and whether they got the AV vote through; if they do it might well increase the bleedoff of idealists to the Greens.
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You're assuming that the public behaves rationally. Or even that individual people do.
Agreed on most of the rest, though.
I can see an argument for "presenting a united front" on the basis that if the coalition doesn't appear productive and decisive, nobody has any hope of any kind of PR proposal for a long time (simple voting reform, as proposed, too? Not sure.). But, that's one aspect versus a whole load of things on the other side...
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This is spectacularly arrogant.
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