Comment: Time to end the misguided attack on the Lib Dems
The local elections show that demonising Nick Clegg just gives the Conservatives a free ride.
By Ian Dunt
What is it about betrayal that makes it such a potent source of drama? From cheating husbands on EastEnders, to double-crossing action movie bad guys, to the shouts of Everton fans when Wayne Rooney is on the pitch – betrayal is the stuff that stories are made of. It prompts a curious passion. It’s for these entirely emotional reasons that the Liberal Democrats have become the most absurd Army of Darkness in political history and Nick Clegg is the new national bogeyman.
Many people who are angry about spending cuts seem to have had a particularly satisfying night, constantly tweeting their delight at ever-worse Lib Dem local election results. They should ask themselves exactly what this morbid fascination with the Lib Dems has brought them. The Conservatives have actually increased the number of councils they control while the Lib Dems plunge new depths.
Some anger is understandable. Lib Dem support for the Conservatives meant that an economic plan was implemented which not only did not have a mandate but had actually been specifically rejected by the electorate at the general election. Then Clegg’s completely unnecessary support for the rise in tuition fees alienated a whole generation of young people.
But the irony of the Lib Dems being hated by the very people who have benefited from their presence in government must weigh heavily on ministers. With the left gleefully mocking the party’s downfall, there seems to be little understanding of the fact that Lib Dem influence in government – on NHS reforms, Europe, prisoners’ rights, the BBC budget, child detention, Rupert Murdoch and civil liberties – is in their political direction. Conditional rules for universities charging higher fees and a pupil premium might seem like bandages on a car crash victim, but it’s more than you would have got under a purely Conservative government.
The level of vitriol and political attention devoted to Clegg is entirely disproportionate, but it is also self-defeating. The Conservatives are delivering a Tory programme for their voters and the party is therefore maintaining support. But weakening the Lib Dems – not just electorally but also through framing the Westminster village’s narrative around Clegg’s demonisation – has minimised their influence on government. David Cameron now has no incentive to offer Clegg concessions. Buoyed with confidence, his coalition partner carrying less and less options, Cameron now has more room to push rightwards, or at least continue down his present path with even less consideration.
The local elections and AV referendum might turn into a welcome dark night of the soul for the Lib Dems, forcing them to distance themselves much further from their coalition allies and opening up a dialogue with voters which could conceivably have an impact by the next general election.
But if the left has any sense, it will also treat it as a wake-up call. Those crowing for Lib Dem humiliation have got what they want. And so have the Conservatives. So something must be going wrong somewhere.
Nothing will come of this fairytale demonisation of the junior coalition partner. The Lib Dems are not the source of the government’s economic agenda. If they had formed a coalition with Labour they would have supported an entirely different economic plan in return for similar concessions on other policies. The deficit reduction plan is a Conservative one. Focusing fire on the Lib Dems just allows them to get on with it.
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