If David Cameron is C3PO made of ham, then surely Nick Clegg is now revealed as C3PO made of SPAM.
Not exactly the same as 'Dave' but bearing all the trademarks of Posh Boy mark II, just not even made of the real thing.
Shabby.
And I am sure that Nick Clegg's ambitions were always that he wanted to be John Prescott.
Disappointing.
Power, yes: but at what price?
I heard Paddy Ashdown this morning saying his reaction to the coalition was 'hooray'. Yes, that was exactly what he was saying to the idea on Thursday night/Friday morning. (I wish I could find the exact quote he used, but it was along the lines of 'we could not go into a coalition with the Conservative party'. Yes, right. Well, you stuck with that didn't you?)
Don't get me wrong: I'm grateful that the presence of the LDs in office will at least delay everyone on David Cameron's Xmas card list not getting their inheritance tax break. And if the tax threshold is raised to £10,000 that is great.
But caps on immigration is not what you campaigned on.
Neither was hopping into coalition with a party that in Europe is aligned to some very nasty parties indeed.
Neither was keeping Trident on your priority list.
All I can say to LD voters is that you need to REALLY mobilise supporters to come out when you get that referendum on electoral reform. And that you get a phrasing of question to the electorate that makes the very limited AV that the Tories will stretch themselves to offer seem positive.
If your don't manage to make the electoral reform thing pay off big time, and soon, then frankly I'm not sure the price of hooking up with the Tories will be worth the crap you will be eating in big policy terms.
UPDATE:
Phil puts it SO well... thank you. The poster itself you include says it all.
2 comments:
Let's face it, a whole load of Labour people are annoyed with the LibDems and blaming them. But why blame the LibDems when Labour really didn't want power themselves? If the principle was to keep the Tories out, why not ally themselves to the LibDems (oh wait, because they'd have to ally themselves to the SNP and there's no way they'd do that according to Douglas Alexander. Oh, and because Labour don't want to ally themselves with the LibDems either. Or anyone.).
The LibDems went to Labour in the middle of the talks with the Tories and said here's what the Tories are offering, how about you? and Labour, rather than going, yeah, we'll match that, said no. The LibDems had the choice then of
a) a pact with the Tories to ensure we weren't going to spend the next year or so having elections until a (probable) Tory majority was returned that could do what it wanted, while simultaneously not getting anything done in parliament (ie not being evil and therefore more appealing to voters)
b) entering a pact with the Tories that gets some LibDem policies implemented, seats on the Cabinet to influence policy and the way the country is run, and some Tory policies stopped. Basically, more positive influence and more policies implemented than the LibDems have had nationally. Ever.
There's obvious a whole world of room for things to be screwed up, messed up, stitched up, etc. But option b) in the absence of Labour actually wanting to keep the Tories out seems like a no-brainer.
I agree that Labour whole-heartedly screwed themselves on this one. At least the Tories were ruthless enough to be prepared to go into LD coalition...
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