“Should I Stay or Should I Go”
Civitas, 26 April 2011
This weekend Chris Huhne voiced serious criticisms of the Chancellor and the Conservative party in light of the ‘No to AV’ campaign’s recent claims about the cost and benefit for radical parties of the AV electoral system. Perhaps most significant could be the fact that he ‘refused to rule out resigning as energy secretary over the tensions’. Huhne’s outburst came on the same day that the Independent on Sunday ran an interview with Nick Clegg where the Deputy Prime Minister in effect described the Tories, as opponents of AV, as a ‘nasty right wing clique’. Although political rhetoric can be misleading, the coalition government seems to be on the verge of splitting at the seams.
Why is the apparent rift happening now? The obvious answer is that the AV referendum has exposed the underlying conflict at the heart of the Coalition. When forced to confront an issue where the two parties are diametrically opposed, the gloves came off and ‘gutter politics’ was the result. Compromise and consensual government is all well and good, but there is no compromise in the winner-takes-all election on May 5th.
The irony is that the conflict has reached new heights over an electoral system which increases the chance of more coalitions in the future. The current acrimony between the parties perhaps the greatest fillip to the ‘No’ campaign.
The problem for the Lib Dems is that they have backed themselves into a corner. If they ignore the obviously underhand tactics of the ‘No to AV’ campaign’ (not to say the ‘Yes’ camp is much better), which has sought to do everything but actually explain how AV works, then current polls suggest AV will be defeated. On the other hand if they launch an aggressive counter campaign, as Clegg and Huhne seem to be doing, then they risk doing the ‘No to AV’ campaign’s work for it by demonstrating the difficulties with coalition governments.
There does not seem an easy way out of this dilemma. Though whatever the Lib Dems decide there may be little incentive to stay in the coalition if the electorate says no to AV next week. The country may have decided that they are not fans of coalition governments in general, following their recent experience of it. Coalition governments can certainly operate in a smoother manner than the British Government is currently, yet compromise is difficult. Furthermore one of the greatest benefits of the system, compromise within government in the formulating of policies, is often hidden from the electorate. The Lib Dems were right to join the coalition, however the fact that they have received the lion share of the popular vitriol directed at the current government could mean that they feel right in leaving it.