Go back to your constituencies, and prepare for a kicking

The Liberal Democrats' rise to power has alienated many of their supporters.

By Matt Chorley

Sunday, 25 July 2010


They should be holding their heads high, proud to be Liberals in power in the first coalition since the Second World War. But, as they return to their constituencies, many Liberal Democrat MPs are dreading their summer holidays.

They're weary of holding the line on the coalition, preferring the bubble of Westminster, where they convince themselves everything is going rather well. Private despondency and anger from both the Tory right and Liberal left are starting to spill into public.

By contrast, Nick Clegg says he is suffering from "Whitehall cabin fever". After 10 weeks in government, he wants to get out and meet real people. Not all of them will be pleased to see him, even in his own party. The Deputy Prime Minister came face to face with the public yesterday in Abingdon Guildhall, an ornate building dating from the 15th century. He invited "vitriol and polemic" and stood accused of standing in the way of good schools, a pensioners' holiday to China and problems with a local weir. Several times he stressed that he was "putting aside short-term interests for the long term". This is the sign of an emerging strategy to deflect attention from the Lib Dems' dire poll ratings – down to just 13 per cent mid-week – which have fallen as the Tories' have risen.

Mr Clegg made only an opaque reference to David Davis's wine bar mockery of the "Brokeback coalition", suggesting a Lib Dem supporter in Oxfordshire "have a word" with the former shadow home secretary. He later said such criticism was based on the "human instinct" to attack anything new.

This is cold comfort to many Lib Dem associations which are still seething after seeing their leaders waltz into power with the Conservative rivals they clashed so angrily with during the election campaign. Sandra Gidley, a former Lib Dem health spokesman who lost her seat on 6 May, warned yesterday that her party would be "toast" if it could not point to real elements of "liberal democracy" in the policy programme. She urged her old colleagues now in government not to repeat the "classic mistake" the party makes when it takes control of councils and quickly "forgets the outside world". Stephen Gilbert, the new MP for St Austell and Newquay, remained loyal to the coalition but admitted MPs must "go out there and talk to the party members".

Few Lib Dems on the left of the party have the appetite for "selling" the Government's programme. Tim Farron, who ran for the party's deputy leadership, spoke for many in Westminster and most among the grass roots when he warned his party was being used as "cover" for the Tories' "toxic" brand. Another put it more bluntly: "You can't trust the fucking Tories."

For a few hours last week the feeling was mutual. Mr Clegg's "slip" when he branded the Iraq war "illegal" at the Dispatch Box brought a slap from No 10 and a withering put-down from the Commons Speaker, John Bercow, who suggested he was there to give the Government's view, not his own.

Some saw the remark as a gaffe, others as an attempt to woo his party's left wing. Mr Clegg told Channel 4 News last night: "This is a debate that will run and run. I feel very strongly about it. My party does. It opposed the decision to go to war. I've always been clear that my personal opinion is that the legal basis was not justified for going into war." He admitted, however, that the coalition Government "doesn't take a view on the legality".

All this and it is still supposed to be the coalition's honeymoon. The former party chairman, Matthew Taylor, who took his seat in the House of Lords last week, said that things will get worse in the long term, with the rise of rebellion from "worried backbenchers who think they are going to lose their seats". "The test will be holding the backbenchers together, and that may be where the Liberal Democrats find it hard both as junior partners and having less history of being in government," he said.

Polling by the Tory donor Lord Ashcroft suggested that of 25 Lib Dem-Tory marginals, the Conservatives would take every one if an election were held now. Lord Taylor said party members fear looking as though the Lib Dems have "sold out" and question if Mr Clegg is "just getting far too far into bed with the Tories".

Lord Taylor, who stood down as MP for Truro and St Austell at the election after 23 years, warned that presenting a united front with David Cameron had risked alienating left-wing activists – who are philosophically closer to Labour and whom Mr Clegg "might not meet in corridors in Westminster".

The Deputy PM went some way to appeasing them yesterday, heaping praise on Sir Menzies Campbell's "outstanding" report into alternatives to Trident. Meanwhile, the Lib Dems' deputy leader, Simon Hughes, is working with Labour MPs to oppose the coalition's crackdown on housing benefit, which includes a 10 per cent cut if the recipient is out of work for a year, and caps claims at £400 for a four-bedroom home. A group of left-wing Lib Dems is also privately lobbying for the Treasury to use the law to cap private rents, in a return to a system in place until the late 1980s.

Lord Taylor said: "Nick Clegg has not done a lot to embrace those people and use language that would help them. It is a communications difficulty. One is a proclamation of independence and one is a proclamation of marriage. A big challenge of the Lib Dem conference is going to be addressing those activists who aren't finding it easy and those who are just nervous about the electoral consequences."

Unfortunately, Mr Clegg will not be there, at least not for all of it. The Cabinet Office quietly announced on its website that he will miss half of his own party conference in September. Instead of giving the keynote leader's speech to round off the annual gathering, he will be representing the UK at the Millennium Development Goals Summit at the UN. Not all Lib Dems are unhappy. "While the big cat's away, the rest of us can play," said one election hopeful who lost to the Tories.

Grass-roots activists have begun to complain that all federal policy committee meetings – which will be crucial to drawing up a distinct programme on which to campaign at the next election – are held in London. Members claim the party risks becoming too London-centric and dominated by those serving in the coalition Government. They see the party conference as an important opportunity to air their concerns.

In Bournemouth last year, Mr Clegg was heckled by opponents of his plan to shelve a promise to scrap tuition fees. To that list he can now add the VAT rise, prison policy, and the compromise electoral reform of the alternative vote, which few Lib Dems favour.

At the first joint political cabinet meeting of the coalition on Friday, the Conservatives appeared to ride to the Lib Dems' rescue by agreeing a new strategy to head off Labour attacks on the junior government partner. Labour leadership front-runner David Miliband intends to circumvent Lib Dems in Westminster to speak directly to disgruntled supporters. "We have got to understand what they wanted when they voted Lib Dem and show that they can find a home in the Labour Party," he said. Ed Balls's campaign team favours a "hug a Lib Dem" strategy to drive a wedge between Team Clegg and his MPs. In at least one case this has included a semi-serious invitation to one unhappy Lib Dem to defect and return to the opposition benches.

With MPs spending five weeks away from Westminster, and given the rarely iron-like grip of Lib Dem whips, the potential for splits is clear. Barely half of Lib Dem voters say they "approve" of what the coalition has done to date, compared to more than 85 per cent of Tories. The Conservative lead over the Lib Dems has widened from 13 per cent at the election to more than 30 points in recent days. The proportion of voters who think Mr Clegg is doing badly has doubled since mid-May.

The third party was once mocked for going home to prepare for power. Now they have got it, some Lib Dems could not be more miserable. Now is their summer of discontent.

Go back to your constituencies, and prepare for a kicking - UK Politics, UK - The Independent

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withering put-down from the Commons Speaker, John Bercow, who suggested he was there to give the Government's view, not his own.

Since when was that any of your business, douchebag? No wonder everyone despises him.

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Since when was that any of your business, douchebag? No wonder everyone despises him.

Is that not what the Speaker always does? If not, what?

It sounds like many of the Lib Dems are like third parties everywhere. They treasure their principles but if asked to put them on the line they wimpily gross-out.

Australia in the 1980s had a vibrant Democrat party that was a third force between Labor and the Liberal-National Coalition. Politically left wing and socially modestly libertarian, it was, founder Don Chipp declared, established to "keep the bastards honest", and it managed to get enough members into the Senate to have the balance of power and do exactly that.

But it all unravelled after that balance of power was exercised in 2000 to allow a Liberal-National government to introduce a 10% goods and services tax - GST (equivalent to the European VAT).

Arguments raged among the Democrats as to whether Meg Lees (the then party head) should have voted with the government or should have not. This was the start of a downward trajectory that has seen her party finally vanish. As it happens, introduction of GST made good sense and nobody seriously argues against it now. But when at the time the partliamentary party took a stance, it split the members and the party eventually collapsed.

Will the same thing happen in the UK with the Lib Dems? There are decisions ahead that the government needs the LD numbers to get through the House. Will the LD rank and file understand the compromises that must be made to be in office or might they, like the Australian Democrats, repudiate their leaders, to ultimately vanish from political sight?

Originally Posted by roadkill

Is that not what the Speaker always does? If not, what?

No. Maintaining party discipline is a matter for the whips.

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The dems were always gonna be between a rock and a hard place, they had to go into goverment with the Torries, and I think that people forget they only have 50 seats in the commons, which is less than 20% of the seats yet they are affecting goverment policy.

Are the dems doing all they want to? No.
Are they doing all they can do (and more) with their mandate. Yes.
Will they be butchered in coming elections? Probably.

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The whole of the leftwing press is acting as though the electorate were composed entirely of hardcore Lib Dem voters who are horrified that their idols would condescend to breathe the same air as a Tory. Of clones of themselves, in other words.

Actually it's mostly made up of uncertain, not very political types who've thus far witnessed the Lib Dems doing a grown-up, workman-like sort of job and helping to produce policies that have widespread, if cautious, support. I can see them improving their numbers at the next election.

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Not really. There are good reasons for seeing it that way, based on the history of the party as at least in part a factional split in the Left, and on polling results. And then there is the fact that anti-Toryism exists independently of being left wing.

Anecodotally, all the Lib Dems supporters I've met have been substantially to the left of centre, and it is Clegg ands the Orange Book faction that is the in the minority. Nor do I think they are more or less political than supportrers of other parties.

Lastly, the coalition is in fact implementing policies that are directly contrary to the manifesto they presented at the election, and voters do feel that they have been in effect exploited and misled. I don't think the idea that many of thier supporters will defect is at all far fetched.

But it's not just Lib Dem voters who vote Lib Dem these days.

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Well by definition, if they vote Lib Dem they are Lib Dem voters.

This is all complicated and can't be dealt with by categories. All political parties get votes for multiple reasons. In some sense it is always difficult for the party that becomes a vehicle for protest or tactical votes to establish a coherent policy.

But at ther last election, the Tories were reviving and probably regained most of the votes they had lost over the last few elections because of their "nasty party" tag. So I don't think many LD votes came from people who are "natural Tories". At the same time New Labour was discredited and deserving of punishment; therefore it is most likely that such extra votes that the LD's gained were basically from the left.

Originally Posted by contracycle

Well by definition, if they vote Lib Dem they are Lib Dem voters.

There's a difference between someone who happens to vote Lib Dem once and someone who defines themselves as a Lib Dem voter.

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But at ther last election, the Tories were reviving and probably regained most of the votes they had lost over the last few elections because of their "nasty party" tag. So I don't think many LD votes came from people who are "natural Tories". At the same time New Labour was discredited and deserving of punishment; therefore it is most likely that such extra votes that the LD's gained were basically from the left.

You're still failing to account for the biggest category of all: floating voters.

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