Matthew Jenkins' BlogA blog about Worcester, politics and the environment

With the coalition government nearly a week old, the question many people are asking is if this is the start of a new politics. A full coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats took most commentators by surprise, including myself. The key to the coalition forming was the agreement to have a referendum on the alternative vote. Both parties moved away from their chosen positions to compromise on this. It will upset a large number of their own members, as has been seen by those leaving the Liberal Democrats to join the Green Party or the Labour Party.

However, as a member of neither the Conservative Party or the Liberal Democrats, I can take a less partisan perspective. If the alternative voting system does result from this coalition, although it is not PR it should result in more seats for the Liberal Democrats in future elections. In addition, with the smaller parties, such as the Green Party and UKIP, taking a greater proportion of votes than previously, there is an increased chance of further coalitions.

If the present coalition government can survive for close to five years and not be seen as a disaster, then we may well be entering a new era of politics. The characteristics of this era being a less adversarial and more cooperative government and parliament. Hopefully the Liberal Democrats can temper some of the Conservatives more right wing policies. There will certainly be much that I will disagree with, but this coalition is preferable to a minority Conservative government or another general election. The latter would almost certainly have resulted in a Conservative majority, as they are the only party with any money left to run a campaign. The issue of party funding and spending needs addressing, but I’ll leave that to another post.