It’s time to speak the unspeakable
Lord Heseltine has been the latest political figure to talk seriously about the distinct possibility of a hung Parliament (BBC Hard Talk). He may believe it. He may be attempting to guard against complacency from within his own party. Either way we can all see that the question of a hung parliament , far from going away, is getting increasing airtime.
Given that the Lib Dems have singularly failed to deliver a convincing narrative around which to hang its policies perhaps a different tack is required. One that harnesses the media’s growing fascination with the prospect of a hung parliament and enables us to reclaim our “honesty” crown.
Yes I am going to say it. Let’s stop wasting the electorate’s time – and risking their contempt – talking to them about how we can win the next election (which frankly no sane person believes). Nick Clegg talking about being Prime Minister sounds more like a small boy writing to Santa than a serious politician on the brink of power.
So why dont we start talking credibly about how we can have major influence in the formation of the government?
Let’s talk about what Lib Dems will do in the event of a hung parliament.
Tell the electorate what we will do – and why – and clearly establish on what grounds we will deal with any government and what is and what’s not negotiable. (PR is no longer and abstract notion amongst voters – its a tangible way for all of us to re-engage with the political system).
Of course this will be considered a brave step. Yes we’ve all seen the scars.
But – this option opens up a whole new avenue of debate – one that will enable us to remind the electorate of our fearlessness, our honesty, our foresight, and even our “niceness” (whatever that means). These are our strengths. Perhaps as importantly, the question of a hung parliament is one that our leader will be asked time and again – and there will come a point – if that point has not yet been reached – where he will look silly, dishonest or disengaged, if he can’t, or won’t, give a straightforward answer. Let’s go one better than that – and make it our issue.
In these changed times, with so many people genuinely tired of last century’s politics, on the back of the expenses row, and coming out of more than a decade of big majorities and impotent back benchers, this is surely too good an opportunity to miss. We know that the Tory lead in the polls is all about disaffection with Labour – not love for the Tories – they STILL don’t trust them and rightly so. So I cant really see that there is much to lose – whereas there is so much to be gained.
If you have not yet had a chance – read the piece in The Times which is an extract from Lord Owen’s new biography. It makes you think.
November 1st, 2009 at 10:12 am
Seems reasonable, not unspeakable. As long as we don’t go saying we prefer one government to another. That’ll prevent third party squeezes.
November 1st, 2009 at 10:21 am
Agree with Ian Eiloart, although it’s not easy to explain to the electorate the key differences between coalitions under PR and coalitions under FPTP.
Although I’m not convinced that a hung parliament will happen, I think it’s feasible. As hopeless as Labour are, I expect a last minute wobble in the Tory vote as people look at the likes of Osborne and wonder if they really have an appetite to elect that lot in. And as Mike Smithson always says–when predicting future events, never assume things will stay the same as they are now.
November 1st, 2009 at 11:09 am
This discussion rears it’s head up in the run-up to every election. And just now and again, the prospect of a hung parliament is a real one. But this time? With the lamest of lame-duck PMs and after 12 years of NuLab misrule and creeping oppression? No. Looking objectively, the election is Cameron’s to lose and despite his flimsiness he shows no sign of doing that. So what the Lib Dems have to do is find a way to define an identity for ourselves which is clearly different from the other two main parties. This will be an anti-politics election and I suspect it will do the party no good to be seen flirting with the idea of sharing power with the corrupt establishment parties.
November 1st, 2009 at 11:19 am
But there’s nothing anti-politics about this FPTP charade. Budding young members of the political elite just join one of the two big parties and know that at some point they’ll get into power without having to ever say what they really think.
November 1st, 2009 at 3:10 pm
One of the ironies of this is that I suspect you might actually pick up more votes if you were clear about how you would approach a hung parliament. The certainty would give the electorate more confidence in knowing how their vote would affect the next government, and that is really quite important.
And when you set out your plans for PR, please don’t use the phrase “PR”. In fact, get this across to all the MPs as well: never let the letters “PR” or the phrase for which they stand cross your lips. There’s a hundred and one different forms of “PR” out there, each with its own advocates and detractors. Talk about STV, AV, AV+, or whatever what form you want, but not “PR”, because some forms of PR are actively bad and (in my view) worse than the system we have now (e.g., the system we use for electing MEPs).