While British democrats are looking forward to a hung parliament and a progressive realignment with a referendum on PR, ground is being prepared for a Yellow Tory coalition.
The idea was originally floated with brio and verve by Guido Fawks last Sunday. In yesterday’s update he notes that Nick has said (rightly) it would be inconceivable to allow Brown to “squat” in No 10 if he came third while Cameron has refused to rule out permitting PR if the Lib Dems want to work with him. Matt d’Ancona gave the whole idea a walking in his Sunday Telegraph column.
Fawks argues that Cleggite Lib Dems are not on the left in the way many of his party’s rank and file are supposed to be. Their leadership and the Tories “share key liberal ideological tenets – localism, decentralisation, transparency and a preference for market based solutions”.
Arguably the two most influential big party blogs, Conservative Home and Left Foot Forward both dumped on Fawks. But Tim Montgomerie on the right and Will Straw on the left share an antipathy to those of us who want modern liberty and an end to the database state. [CORRECTION only Conservative Home has, Straw OPPOSES ID cards, see comment below, and the word "dumped" is unfair to Montgomerie's elegant prose].
In his dream scenario Fawks imagined the new double-C, Clegg-Cameron government as follows:The average age of the cabinet is now 44, the centre-piece of the Queen’s speech is to be a Great Repeal Bill, undoing 13 years of authoritarian legislation and strengthening civil liberties, restricting the growth of the surveillance and database society. The Big Society reform programme promises to fundamentally re-balance state and society in favour of a smaller more open government. Cable promises an emergency budget within 30 days signalling tough action on the deficit.
PR appears to have slipped out of the priorities, which I hope the Lib Dems would find unacceptable.
Click on link to read the rest of Anthony Barnett's article
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