Reading through the weekend's newspapers it struck me that the Tories are doing quite well out of this coalition. There have been mass protests against student fees, but the Lib Dems and Nick Clegg were the butt of that. Unpopular decision have not significantly affected their poll rating and neither has a new Labour leader. Yet they are driving through a programme of cuts and policies that they will long have dreamed of and are getting the Lib Dems to do their dirty work for them. Perfect?
There could be trouble around the corner with Ken Clarke's relaxing of criminal justice. The cuts will bite and people will lash back at the Tories I'm sure. The Tories are as guilty as the Lib Dems of breaking pre-election promises. David Cameron gave personal guarantees that Child Benefit wouldn't be cut and nobody ever suggested that VAT would go up, yet it has.
The mud hasn't stuck to the Tories, I bet they cant' believe their luck.
1 comment:
I've been thinking about this situation a lot. Whilst 2015 is a long way away, 2011 certainly is not. I conducted a poll towards voting intentions on my blog http://shibleyrahman.com and I found that, amongst Labour voters, they would be less inclined to vote 'YES TO AV' if Nick Clegg were in power. Now, when it comes to 2015 itself, I suspect that the Liberal Democrats will come to the conclusion that, if they decide to 'go it alone', they might face electoral armageddon. Therefore - whilst it will be resisted by the Conservatives - Nick Clegg might wish to plump for a Con-Lib pact. Even if GDP begins to march upwards, it is highly UNLIKELY that Nick Clegg will get back his following after all the social misery the Coalition will have inflicted through its very unpopular cuts. Under those circumstances, there will be definitely people in the Liberal Democrats party who won't be able to stomach it any more. As for Clegg going now perhaps through getting a well paid job in Europe, whoever takes over now, such as Danny Alexander, could become the figurehead for public anger at the Liberal Democrat arm of the coalition. One last thing, there's a possibility that if the public vote no to AV some people see it as a plebicite on Clegg, and many Liberal Democrats may wish him to be sacked at that point.
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