Lord Ashdown may be right – the coalition has opened up the south west to Labour
Andrew George once told me that there was always ‘room for radicals’ in the Liberal Democrats. Well, that was some years ago when the idea of his party forming a coalition with the Tories was unthinkable. For this radical at least, the idea of supporting Mr George and the Lib Dems is now unthinkable. Mr George’s attempt to place all the blame for the failure to form a Lib Lab coalition on Labour is looking increasingly untenable as details begin to emerge - for example in today’s Guardian – of what went on behind closed doors during Clegg’s negotiations with Cameron.
The most persuasive case for a Lib Lab coalition came from Lord Ashdown in a Today interview in the days leading to Nick Clegg’s deal with Cameron. Forget the arithmetic, said Ashdown, none of the smaller parties would vote out a progressive alliance to let the Tories in. And in today’s Guardian report he makes clear he ‘wouldn’t be part’ of any Cameron-Clegg government. He said the coalition deal upset him because it meant the Lib Dems were ‘abandoning the alignment of the left’ and he feared it would open up the south west of England to Labour.
But not just to Labour. Radicals and progressives in Cornwall need to decide how best to defend the region against the cuts about to hit us from the Cameron-Clegg government. That may indeed be by supporting Labour – or perhaps other parties with ‘room for radicals’?
