A Brief History of Liberty

What could a Cabinet reshuffle mean for the coalition?

For two years we’ve been waiting for David Cameron’s first full reshuffle. There have been various mini-shuffles caused by resignations but nothing major yet. There’s been spatterings of meaningless rumour of reshuffles for quite some time so who knows whether the current talk is correct or not, but there are some questions to be asked.

I think that one of the problems faced by the Cameron administration is that it has a very narrow base of support due to the small political spectrum of its ministers. Most, whether Conservative or Liberal Democrat, MP or Peer, are of the broadly centrist persuasion. There are few Tory tubthumpers and no liberal-lefties. Previous Governments, even those of centrist orientations such as Tony Blair’s, gave many important jobs to those of wildly differing political viewpoints. David Cameron may have realised that the public shock at the reality of the coalition may have meant that nobody would spot just how narrow the spectrum of the Cabinet was, but now it is glaringly in view. At least one Lib Dem seen as on the left and a small handful of Tories on the right while retaining the old one-nation types like Ken Clarke would bring new support to the government from all sides.

Another interesting issue is the political composition of the Cabinet. Here is the current composition:

One immediate thing to notice is that there are no entirely Liberal Democrat Departments. I think that, now we beginning to enter the second half of this coalition, integration is less important than differentiation and it would be beneficial to both coalition parties to be able to point to more government acts that were solely down to them. As such, I think it would be good to create one or two Liberal Democrat departments and increase the number of Conservative departments. The Lib Dems should control one major department and the Conservatives should control a couple. Transport jumps to mind as a department both major and relevant to liberal ideology while I think many Lib Dems would feel able to wash their hands of Health. Dividing the departments like this would allow both parties to say at the next election that most of the Government was mixed but some was purely Tory and some was purely Lib Dem, and to illustrate precisely what they offered. Here is what the departments could look like:

My words for Labour

This is the first in a short series of posts in which I’ll be temporarily putting aside my mantle of tribal Liberal Democrat and indulging my inner strategist and offer my outside view on the states of the other parties. I’ll start with the official opposition currently leading in the polls.

1. Don’t take victory for granted

I can well imagine that for a long term Labour supporter, watching this Coalition government finding its feet, implementing deeply unpopular cuts and staggering from scandal to scandal, it would be easy to imagine that the next election, or at least the one after it (2015 and 2020 if the fixed term bill has its way) is a certain Labour majority. Well, it isn’t. Until recently, Labour was tying with the Conservatives in the opinion polls, the party has yet to figure out what its policy slate for the next election will be, there aren’t a lot of big hitters in the party that aren’t tainted by the eventual unpopularity of the last government. You may well win, but it’s far from a given.

2.  Ditch Ed

From my point of view, I love Ed Miliband. I giggle with delight when I think about how, not only was the spectacularly uncharismatic Ed elected, but his surprise defeat has seriously dented the, actually rather impressive David Miliband’s future within the party. Ed is a nice guy, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him recently, but he won’t do anything much for your chances. He won because he was the only candidate save Dianne Abbott that represented neither Blair nor Brown. I can understand why the party wants to move on from those years but Ed has nothing else to offer.

3. Stop hating Tony Blair

Tony Blair is nowhere near as toxic a brand as Margaret Thatcher yet the Tories still cheer every time she is mentioned. Tony Blair may be a swear word amongst the majority of middle aged English men but he’s still the only person that’s ever led your party to consecutive election wins. He’s responsible for the image of your party today as the natural party of choice for the less well off. He demonstrated that Labour could govern in the long term without destroying the economy. Yes, he was far from perfect, but stand up for him in public, it’s the only way that most people will begin to trust you again.

4. Get back in touch with your roots

When I look at the Labour party today, I see a party that doesn’t know what it is. Before 1994, you were a proud and radical party of socialists, determined to nationalise industries and redistribute wealth. Between 1994 and 2007, you were Blair’s New Labour, no longer socialists but officially ‘social democrats’, broadly accepting the Thatcherite economic model but trying to be more compassionate than the Tories. 2007 brought Brown’s New Labour, hardly a bold turn away from Blairism yet a shift away from the right. This is where the vagueness really set in, Brown knew that a lot of left wingers were upset at the party’s move to the right but knew that a major shift leftwards would alienate the public. So he tried to hedge his bets and be the best of both, still New Labour but back in touch with the lefty nature of the party. The vagueness has really set in now. Seriously, what is the Labour party? Is it New Labour, still? Has it returned to its socialist ways? The change from ‘social democrats’ to ‘democratic socialists’ would suggest so yet Miliband is hardly reinstating Clause IV. It’s like he is, in the vein of Gordon Brown, trying to have the best of both worlds - not New Labour, not old Labour. I sense a party dying to return to proper socialism, activists desperate to boldly oppose the free market economic model. Do it. Voters admire integrity and honesty and there’s a growing anti-capitalist movement. If there’s been one opportunity to tap into a movement for change in the last few decades, this is it. Don’t miss it. You will alienate some centrist voters but not as many as your blairites will fear. You will energise a new generation of young people disengaged from politics out of their view that all the parties are the same and stem the gradual flow of support to more left wing parties like the Greens.

5. If you are a blairite, you’re in the wrong party

Labour is still trying to be the party of natural centrism, trying to pose as the natural party of not bothering anyone. This is not Labour’s natural position, Labour is a radical party of socialism and reform. Blair was a deviation from the norm, not the future state of the party. If you think of yourself as a social democrat and the thought of Labour being bold socialists scares you, perhaps the Liberal Democrats are your more natural party now. If you’ve been quietly impressed by the reforms and ideology of the Cameron administration, maybe the Conservatives are your natural home. The simple fact is that Labour is not looking like a blairite party anymore and, from what I can see, centrists are increasingly unwelcome in their own party.

Sheffield Hallam University Liberal Democrats statement on Lembit Opik talk

On Monday 23rd April, Lembit Opik came to Hallam Union and delivered a talk, primarily  about Civil Liberties, in which he also outlined his opinions on the leadership of the party. It was no surprise to us that the local media decided to report only the more controversial part (would ‘ex Lib Dem MP delivers defence of civil liberties’ really be big news?) however the polar reporting rather makes it look as though the talk centred around the future of Nick Clegg. It didn’t.

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/local/it-s-time-to-quit-nick-claims-mp-in-sheffield-talk-1-4481212

Lembit’s points were that he felt that the leadership would most likely be unable to ‘turn things around’ before the next General Election and that Nick should therefore set a timetable to be replaced as Leader of the party while remaining DPM. We at SHU Lib Dems do not endorse his opinions and are 100% supportive of the Liberal Democrat leadership and the coalition, but we pride ourselves on offering Hallam students, Sheffield University students, non-students in Sheffield and anybody else that is interested, interesting events with thought-provoking speakers. In the future we look forward to other speakers, from any party or none, and would welcome any supporter of Nick or indeed Nick himself to outline the constructive future for the leadership.