Election 2010 – A New Dawn?
And so it ends.
Gordon Brown has resigned as Prime Minister and also as leader of the Labour Party. David Cameron has reached an agreement with Nick Clegg, which both leaders are (as I type this) discussing with their parties. It’s a new dawn, one where the Liberal Democrats hold the balance of power.
I should be happy, but I’m not. I’m concerned.
How much has Nick Clegg agreed to compromise on? How much of the party’s soul has been given up so that a couple of Lib Dem MPs get a chance to step onto the world stage?
I don’t know, and neither does anyone else yet – but we will tomorrow. And I hope for all our sakes that Nick has fought hard. I’ve seen lots of blogs and tweets decrying the Lib Dems insistence on PR, people who say that it’s the economy that should be the priority, that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq should be a priority, that taxation, public services, education, or the environment should be the priority. Yes, this is YOUR priority, and is the reason that, last week, you were given the chance to have your say and vote for the people that represented your beliefs. The Liberal Democrats have fought for as long as I can remember on a platform of fairness for all, be that fairness in the electoral sense – where everyone’s vote counts, or fairness in equality – where everyone is given the same chance, or (more recently) political fairness – where your elected representatives are reminded that they are just that – your representatives, not your masters.
So – if the Liberal Democratic party are fighting for a more liberal, more democratic society then they are doing their job. If however they’ve sold out and decided to support the Conservatives wholeheartedly then I think they’d best be careful – there are a lot of people out there who voted for them (some of us even voted knowing that our vote would be worthless) and their principles. So Nick and the rest of the parliamentary Lib Dems, think carefully before you sign on the dotted line.
Your supporters are watching, and if you sell us down the river then enjoy your taste of government, because I for one won’t be backing you any more and I have a feeling there are lots of others who agree.
