News from the New Party

What is the LibCon?

If David Cameron looked with gleeful anticipation at the prospect of a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, that is not how it appeared during the election campaign.  At that time he said a hung parliament would be a disaster for Britain and was scathing about the Liberal Democrats.  Now the coalition is said to guarantee stability - indeed, it puts an end to the problem of 'short-term politics'. As Harold Wilson once observed, a week is a long time in politics.

To ensure the stability of his government, Cameron is proposing that a vote of no confidence would need at least 55 per cent support in the House of Commons in order to pass.  That is equivalent to a majority of 65 votes or more.  Such manipulation of our constitutional arrangements is in itself a scandalous indictment of the new government.  It is also, dare we say it, remarkably short term in its thinking, designed to smooth over the current possibility of the Liberal Democrats (with 57 MPs) being able to pull the plug on the Cameron government.

The problem is that it is a short term fix with long term implications.  If a government cannot command a majority in the House of Commons it should go, whether a new prime minister is put in place or an election is called.  That is our constitutional tradition.  Are we now to suppose that it is a virtuous mark of stability that a discredited government could remain in limbo, potentially for years, because it still commands 45 per cent of the House?

It makes us wonder why the Callaghan government back in the 1970s bothered pulling in MPs from their sick beds to vote on crucial votes when the simple expedient of an Enabling Bill could have saved it the trouble.

Constitutional vandalism aside, the new government has the perfect excuse to ditch any promise made during the campaign - the coalition agreement trumps any manifesto commitment.  While the country did not give a majority to any single party, it is true to say that nobody voted for the LibCon.  This is an accident waiting to happen.  In the coming weeks we will be outlining what this government means for our future.