Hi Paul
I saw the e-mail you sent to our website regarding your take on the coalition. I can understand that not all Lib Dem voters are going to be supportive or in agreement with what has happened, but from talking to members of our parliamentary team I know the options open to us were limited.
I am sure many Lib Dem voters would have liked to have seen a centre left coalition with Labour, but the votes cast and numbers of MP's didn't stack up. I also get the feeling that a number of died in the wool Labour MP's were less than enthusiastic about the prospect of working with the Lib Dems in a coalition so it never looked likely to get off the ground.
What would you have liked to have seen happen ?
What are your main concerns about the coalition ?
If you voted Lib Dem for the General and the Borough Council elections what made you give us your support ?
I'm not sure I'll be able to provide the answers your looking for but I'll do my best.
Regards
David
Cllr David Kendall
Hi, David, and thanks for the email
Let’s get that last question out of the way, shall we … ?
I’ve got to confess, I’ve vote Lib-Dem for most of my life, now: most of the time, I see meself as being left-wing enough to vote for you, but not left-wing enough to vote Labour. And too left-wing for voting Conservative.
Actually, I’ve got to admit, I’m one of that generation that grew up, under Thatcher. And, while I could see some appeal in the woman, I also felt that I, as your fairly average working person, I could never seen her government offering much for me, as I’m neither a small business-man, nor someone who stood to benefit much from her policies.
I’m also thinking that growing up in Brentwood — safe Tory seat that it’s been for the last 3 decades or so — also showed me I had little in common either with the average Tory voter in the area, or with the local Labour party.
Who’ve never grabbed /much/ attention, ’round here.
And didn’t grab mine, to be frank. (An old school friend, Mark — or Mark Young, to give him his full name, I think he was a labour ppc at one point — one asked me what I thought of something that had come up at his local Young labour meeting: someone had suggested a Billy Bragg concert benefit gig for the Brentwood labour party. Much as I like some of Bragg’s poppier stuff, I couldn’t help but laugh in his face: ’round here, that would’ve been a major non-event, somehow.)
So the basic background to my support of the Lib-Dems is partly the fact that that’s how I’ve grown up.
But also the combination of three factors.
Firstly, I think that the changing of the tax threshold to £10, 000 directly affected — and benefited — me. Most of my working life, I’ve not had to sort of job that goes over minimum wage, so that … ? THAT I could vote for.
The second one factor was the change of voting system. As I’ve already said, I’m a lifelong Lib-dem voter, so my my vote — going on my party, as it were — being able to boost the party’s chances at becoming more of a force in Parliament can only be something of a good thing.
And thirdly, the simple fact that — as Nick Clegg, himself has stated — the 2010 election represented a serious chance of genuine change
•••••
As for what I think could have happened … ?
Hmmmm …
You know, I’m really not too sure.
I had a couple of possible ideas. Or maybe I should say hopes.
One was quite simply something I remember Sir David Steele expressing a hope for, back in the 1980s: the party quite simply if nothing else, becoming the Official Opposition. Not a realistic hope, I know, but one I would liked to have seen.
As to a coalition … ?
Well, I’ve got to admit, I kind of guessed that one with the torys was going to be inevitable, before the results were announced.
After all, the BBC’s coverage made it perfectly clear that a coalition with Labour was a complete non-starter: I think the impression I got wasn’t so much about Labour party objections … but the various phone calls that Nick Clegg with Gordon Brown were … contentious, let’s put it like that.
Not something that the mixture of Clegg and Cameron seems to suffer from.
•••••
As to what I would’ve liked to have seen happen?
Hmmm …
Well, personally, I’d’ve hoped for a stronger parliamentary position. That’s a first.
Secondly?
I’m a realist.
I know perfectly well that going into coalition with David Cameron’s tory party was a much more viable ">option than going into coalition with Labour, given both the numbers, and the fact that Nick Clegg and David Cameron seem to have a much more amiable working relationship than was reported between Nick Clegg and Gordon Brown.
But may I be blunt?
I feel that that — given the two parties histories — is a deal with the devil. I’d’ve been a lot happier if we’d gone right back into ">opposition.
•••••
So, questions.
Questions, questions, questions …
Hmmm …
Dozens, possibly …
But I’ll try and keep it to a minimum.
First off, let me get my pet bugaboo out of the way, first … !
I’m a blogger.
And quiz fan.
And former pub-quiz master.
And technology watcher.
That’s a key one, for me.
Now I think you’d’ve possibly guessed I’ve already written to both Brentwood Council, Essex Council, and the Brentwood Gazette about the use of open source software in Essex libraries, in schools and anywhere else.
Here’s my first question.
What are you — both as an individual Liberal Democrat, a councillor and representative of of your party — planning to do, both nationally and locally to promote open-source software by councils and national government. AND political parties, I should add.
That’s my first one.
Secondly …
Well …
I think it’s a fairly simple question.
I want to know what your party’s coalition government is going to do for me.
Actually do, rather than promise.
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