f4f3 | On Supping With the Devil: Commiserations

Well, to be accurate, commiserations to the Lib Dems who never intended to support a Tory government. I'm sure there are some who are happy with this arrangement. After all, it has much to recommend it to them: four cabinet seats, 20 government posts, and promises of various policy adoptions (I'm afraid I can't put any value on these promises until they're implemented. There's an old Scottish saying: "Shit in one hand and put a Tory promise in the other. Squeeze them both and see which one comes true...").

For anyone else, though, who voted LD because they wanted an LD government, or who voted tactically to keep the Tories out, or who felt betrayed by Labour and voted for what they saw as a progressive alternative, I'm sorry.

I'm also sorry, genuinely sorry, for the LDs as a party.

Now that they've agreed to a coalition with the Tories, there's no way they can break it without destroying themselves at the polls. Their vote share could only come down if they force a general election. They won't increase their vote from Labour supporters, who will see them as having sold out to to the Tories, and they won't gain Tory voters if they're seen to bring down a Tory government. Their best hope is to remain in coalition for as long as possible and be seen to be a moderating force on the Tories, which means anything up to four years of this.

So Nick, and all your supporters, get ready for a diet of shit sandwiches. Every time something comes up that makes your stomach churn, replacing Trident, say, or semi-withdrawing from Europe, or cutting benefits, or hamstringing the BBC, or bringing in American Insurance Companies to "modernise" the NHS, you'll just have to chow down on that big wad of shit, chew it up, and swallow it. What will be the effect of four years of that sort of diet? Well you know what they say about "you are what you eat."

Coalition is a positive thing for me - I hope it brings out the best in both parties. But I can't help paraphrasing Alan Moore here (the paraphrase is in substituting Jason Blood's word "demon" with "Tory")

"We made a deal with the Tories, that we would become a bit more like each other. But Tories cheat. It's in their nature. We've become a bit more like the Tories, and they, too, have become a bit more like themselves".

I hope, Nick, that you brought a very long spoon...