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

A week after the coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats formed, I wrote about the possibilities of a new politics, where the two parties would work together for the good of the country and, if successful, then this more cooperative approach would herald a new style of politics.

How wrong I was. The Liberal Democrats seem to have been subsumed into the Conservatives, losing their identity. Consequently, they were punished at the local elections and the AV referendum. Rather than acting as a brake on the more right-wing aspects of the Conservative Party in power, the Liberal Democrats have allowed the Conservatives to propose reforms to the NHS and other areas that ideologically beyond anything stated in their manifesto.

The Conservatives have used the coalition claim that they came together for the good of the country, to push forward their own ideological programme. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats have not felt able to criticise anything that the Conservatives have proposed.

The official opposition, the Labour Party, have their own problems, under a new leader still finding his feet. Plus, they are struggling to criticise many of the coalition’s proposals, such as university tuition fees, because ideologically they agree with many of them, e.g., tuition fees, internal market in the NHS, etc.

Thank goodness there is Caroline Lucas making a stand, plus campaigning groups such as 38 Degrees.

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.

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