Skip to main content

Ming Campbell's answer to Triangulation

I see that in this morning's Independent Michael Brown makes the case for an alliance between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

I find it hard to feel warm and cuddly about such an alliance, but that is not because I have any great ideological hang ups about working with Conservatives. The problem is that, were cross party coalitions required in the future, I find that the Conservatives have more in common with Labour.

It is Labour who have proposed most of the key planks of the surveillance state, which the Conservatives have supported.

It is Labour who proposed the Iraq war, the Conservatives who supported it.

It is Labour who try to impose unworkable but supposedly draconian legislation on immigration, the Conservatives who have supported it.

In fact the Conservatives have supported Labour on several of their key mistakes.

The Liberal Democrats have been a far more effective opposition to Labour than the Conservatives, simply because the supposed left and the supposed right have converged on a mildly reactionary, mildly authoritarian consensus.

The Liberal Democrats are supporters of a progressive, far more libertarian world view.

As Ming Campbell finished his speech this afternoon, he completed a Liberal Democrat conference which has underlined our commitment to Liberalism as a force to promote individuality and freedom. The message is clear: if you support less restrictive, more individualistic society, then the Liberal Democrats are on your side.

As for Michael Brown: the Tories just aren't in favour of the kinds of freedom that we are working for, any more than Labour are. In fact the other two have more in common with each other than either have with us. So, since you will not ask whether Labour would go into coalition with the Tories, why bother to ask the Lib Dems? Your agenda is to create a spoiling tactic and distract the electorate from the reality of the current Tweedledum/Tweedledee politics.

Our politics remains about principles and, after a successful and business like conference, the Liberal Democrats can look forward to putting our case to the country at local, European and eventually the general elections ahead of us.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Consul


May we cross swords again?

Briefly surveillance state Tory support? Evidence m'lud. Exhibits for defence, 90 days, Religious Hatred Bill, ID Cards (under Cameron) So you're saying what?

Iraq War - So did a lot of people who trusted that on something like this the PM would not speak unless he was 100%. Not just Conservatives. One P Ashdown as well!


Immigration. Well we'll have to disagree. But it's hard to see how borrowing Zapatero's idea when Zapatero has been caught admitting to Sarkozy what a mistake it was, is now a good idea!


Don't push the old tired Tory/Lab thing again Consul. It's the Emperor with no clothes argument. Sans another World War or major major national crisis which we all pray not this a risible one even as a debating point.

Good Luck in Aberdeen

Lepidus
Martin Veart said…
I think Ming's point the closeness of New Labour and the Tories is well taken and possibly a great threat to the long-term prospect of democracy in the UK. The situation is becoming ominously like that in the USA where there is little to divide the Republican and Democratic parties. The Liberal Democrats are the only UK-wide opposition to the cozy concensus of the two largest parties. It is vital that we take the field on this point.

Popular posts from this blog

Concert and Blues

Tallinn is full tonight... Big concerts on at the Song field The Weeknd and Bonnie Tyler (!). The place is buzzing and some sixty thousand concert goers have booked every bed for thirty miles around Tallinn. It should be a busy high summer, but it isn´t. Tourism is down sharply overall. Only 70 cruise ships calling this season, versus over 300 before Ukraine. Since no one goes to St Pete, demand has fallen, and of course people think that Estonia is not safe. We are tired. The economy is still under big pressure, and the fall of tourism is a significant part of that. The credit rating for Estonia has been downgraded as the government struggles with spending. The summer has been a little gloomy, and soon the long and slow autumn will drift into the dark of the year. Yesterday I met with more refugees: the usual horrible stories, the usual tears. I try to make myself immune, but I can´t. These people are wounded in spirit, carrying their grief in a terrible cradling. I try to project hop

Media misdirection

In the small print of the UK budget we find that the Chancellor of the Exchequer (the British Finance Minister) has allocated a further 15 billion Pounds to the funding for the UK track and trace system. This means that the cost of the UK´s track and trace system is now 37 billion Pounds.  That is approximately €43 billion or US$51 billion, which is to say that it is amount of money greater than the national GDP of over 110 countries, or if you prefer, it is roughly the same number as the combined GDP of the 34 smallest economies of the planet.  As at December 2020, 70% of the contracts for the track and trace system were awarded by the Conservative government without a competitive tender being made . The program is overseen by Dido Harding , who is not only a Conservative Life Peer, but the wife of a Conservative MP, John Penrose, and a contemporary of David Cameron and Boris Johnson at Oxford. Many of these untendered contracts have been given to companies that seem to have no notewo

Bournemouth absence

Although I had hoped to get down to the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth this year, simple pressure of work has now made that impossible. I must admit to great disappointment. The last conference before the General Election was always likely to show a few fireworks, and indeed the conference has attracted more headlines than any other over the past three years. Some of these headlines show a significant change of course in terms of economic policy. Scepticism about the size of government expenditure has given way to concern and now it is clear that reducing government expenditure will need to be the most urgent priority of the next government. So far it has been the Liberal Democrats that have made the running, and although the Conservatives are now belatedly recognising that cuts will be required they continue to fail to provide even the slightest detail as to what they think should guide their decisions in this area. This political cowardice means that we are expected to ch