Coalition

The liberal democrats have gone from weeping in to their cups of coffee about a terribly disappointing general election result to waking up to the prospect of a possible coalition with either the tories or labour, with their seats becoming crucial to either party having any mandate to govern. Suddenly, the disenfranched masses have a voice; those are the ups and downs of supporting a third party in our political system, I suppose.

So what now? Nick Clegg and David Cameron are now negotiating over what exactly such a deal would entail - my opinion on what such a deal should entail is largely irrelevant, and not being one of those talking heads you see on television with their insider contacts in both parties, I can't make any educated guesses either. But what I can say is that I am in favour of such a coalition, despite the fact that it may well be very bad for the liberal democrats politically.

Working with the Conservatives may well look to the public at large like "selling out". It's not. It's the best way the lib dems have of implementing any part of their agenda. Here is an opportunity for them to get parts of their platform enacted - an opportunity that may not come again for some time. Hung parliaments are rare, though they are inevitably going to be more common if the lib dems continue to do well, and there's no guarantee that another hung parliament will come along any time soon that the liberal democrats can use. The other option, that of the liberal democrats replacing one of the other parties, is looking increasingly unlikely in the wake of this election where even with all the buzz and enthusiasm they could not muster any kind of real upusrge in support (on the other hand, this is now the third consecutive general election where the lib dems have increased their overall vote share, so maybe I'm being needlessly pessimistic here. I don't know.) With all this in mind, it seems to me that it would be absolutely nuts to waste this opportunity to make their mark, even if key policies like electoral reform don't happen.

But in that case why not make the seemingly more natural coalition with the labour party? Well, for the simple reason that there's not much that labour can offer them. With the help of a significant number of the third parties, a lib/lab pact could possibly reach a slim majority. But passing legislation of the type the liberal democrats would want in such a situation would be very very difficult. What's more, although working with the tories would look like selling out, working with labour probably wouldn't look much better. So it's damned if they do damned if they don't here. Back on topic - a single backbench revolt could very easily scupper the whole thing, and the lib dems would be no better off than when they started, and probably in line for some electoral punishing to boot. If they worked with the conservatives they would have a comfortable majority; if they worked with labour, they wouldn't.

Plus, it would seem to me that working with labour would make a mockery of the want for real democracy after what happened to the labour party last night.

There's also a significant amount that they could work together on. I imagine most of the financial policy will be dictated by the conservatives - after all, they do have the most votes, the most seats and probably (I confess) a clearer overall vision on what needs to be done. But on the things that the liberal democrats really care about, there could be real progress - for example, although their may not be reform of the voting system in the house of commons, David Cameron repeatedly stated that he wanted to reform the house of lords. Political reform doesn't begin and end with electoral reform, and there's real scope for working together on that issue. Similarly on civil liberties, there is a real chance for the lib dems to bring things like a review of cctv to the fore of the debate.

All in all, a tory/lib dem coalition offers a lot for the liberal democrats to sink their teeth into. It might hurt, but if the lib dem leaders are serious about their beliefs, I don't think they can pass up this opportunity that might be a once in a lifetime one. 6 million voices might be heard after all.