23rd December, 2010
“Below the surface, Lib Dem ministers have been achieving progressive goals and fighting against regressive ones. They cannot always win, but thank goodness they are trying.”
The fact that people like David Hall-Matthews, writing on the Guardian website today, can still argue that we should be grateful that the LibDems are in government beggars belief.
Mr Hall-Matthews suggests that the LibDems are serving a useful and noble purpose, tempering Tory excesses with cuddly, progressive, soft edges.
True, the LibDem’s presence in the Conservative-led goverment might have influenced a few decisions – notably the raising of the tax threshold. (I bet people on low incomes are so delighted with the way things are looking for them.) The “pupil premium”? (I bet schoolchildred from poorer families are greatly consoled, and not at all disheartened by the scrapping of their maintenance allowance, the EMA.) And perhaps the concessions on repayments by graduates who end up on a low income. (I bet prospective graduates are really grateful for that, and not worried at all about the headline fee for tuition.)
But even if you aren’t cynical, dear reader, about these sorts of concessions, even if you think they are better than a kick in the balls, they still don’t justify the “thank goodness for the LibDems” line.
The truth is that their presence legitimizes a more radical programme of reforms, a more brutal (and more urgently put-through) array of welfare and spending cuts than the Tories could ever have dreamt of achieving on their own, either as a minority government or (even) with a majority. The list of horrors coming out of this government is too long and too depressing to itemize. Any concessions won “below the surface” by the LibDems cannot outweigh the additional damage done by a rapacious government legitimized and facilitated by those same LibDems.
Perhaps the most pernicious element of the LibDems’ presence is the way in which it permits the Tories to deploy a raft of manipulative language which would otherwise be unavailable to them. The script is now familiar to us all, and contains many choice - and rather brilliant – phrases, all the way from ‘big society’ to ‘all in it together’, all designed to give the illusion of inclusion.
The most powerful though – and it absolutely depends on LibDem support - is the one that adds to the illusion of inclusion the notion of benign, innocent, co-operative, selflessness. Nobody is allowed to speak for the government without talking about “coming together in the national interest”. This is their mantra, their fig-leaf, their smoke-and-mirrors magic trick.
It’s impressive stuff. It hides the truth.
The truth is that best thing the LibDems could do, if they genuinely believed in progressive politics, would be to stop giving succour to a regressive government.
The truth is that this great “coming together” is in the self-interest of the LibDems (and indeed the Conservatives, which is why Cameron has kept Cable in post), not the national interest.
I don’t blame the LibDems for trying to sell it as magnanimity on their part.
Just forgive me for not buying it. Forgive me for not thanking goodness.