I have to say that personally, i don't by the "selling out" thing. First of all because i'm the type of person who shudders at the thought of a party sticking to all the crap it promises during an election (since there's not a single party in Canada i really like or support - i'm most likely to support the one i think will probably just govern according to reality and not fixate on the BS it promised). But also because if one goes back to the Sept 2009 Lib Dem conference, Clegg was really clear that major cuts would be needed and he fought to keep the idiotic tuition fees thing out of the manifesto. The Lib Dems unfortunately give the members too much say over what goes into the manifesto so they were stuck with that, but Clegg always made it clear they'd not be able to get rid of fees any time soon (if ever). So i don't really see any inconsistency there on his part at least - he's stuck with a party membership that is totally unrealistic in their assessment of the real world.
And i've spoken quite a bit with a friend who studies coalitions in other countries where they're more common (Germany, Netherlands, etc.) and she says this is pretty much how things happen. Considering the whole thing was cobbled together in 5 days, they've not done too badly. I've been livestreaming some of the of committee hearings into things like AV and fixed-term parliaments and how the coalition came about, etc - great stuff.
If proper PR was ever adopted (not AV - real PR), i would expect to see all the parties sort of split up somewhat and major political realignment happen - the Orange Book Lib Dems and the Cameroons joining up, the Neanderthal Tories moving back to their usual place, the New Labour part of Labour maybe teaming up with the old SDP part of the Lib Dems, etc. I read most of the main British papers online (Guardian, Independent, Telegraph, plus BBC and sites like ConservativeHome, Spectator, New Statesman) and it's fascinating how tribal people are and how they totally don't get the debates going on in the other camps. People on the left accusing Clegg of being far-right Tory, while the mainstream Tory supporters hate Cameron and think he's too left-wing, and that the Lib Dems totally control the government etc. It's really funny (but sad that people are too blinded by ideology to even read other sites and try to understand what's going on in the other camps - like the really interesting debate on "liberal conservatism vs mainstream conservatism" over on ConservativeHome these days - also discussed in the Spectator blogs).
But still so much better than here. I can't stand here politically. Barely ever read any Canadian news coverage anymore. |
