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

The coalition government has been accused of being ideologically obsessed with shrinking the size of the state, at whatever the social costs. Whilst they maintain that the current and future cuts are unavoidable; there is no alternative, they say. Who is right?

According to Charles Moore, writing in The Telegraph (18/09/10), the cuts planned to welfare, schools, health and police are far more drastic than those by Margaret Thatcher in 1979. According to Cabinet ministers that he has spoken to in private, “they are full of zeal both for cuts and for reform, but they don’t like to say so in public.”

This seems to confirm the belief many have that the speed and size of the cuts is politically driven. Hence, it is a matter for political debate.

We need to be challenging the government to prove that the damage these cuts will inevitably do to society are justified, whilst offering viable alternatives.

A clear alternative is to cut the deficit much more slowly. Another is to alter the balance of deficit reduction, away from cuts and towards raising more money through a fairer tax system and reducing tax avoidance. Currently the split is 20% tax, 80% cuts. Another is through investing in areas that badly need it and that create jobs, such as the Green New Deal that would move us towards a low carbon economy, by investing in renewables, insulating homes, etc.

Rather than a zeal for cuts, we need a zeal for fairness and a better way of coping with the current economic situation.

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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With the general election result now in, this is the start of a new kind of politics. One which is less adversarial and more cooperative. The two main parties’ are losing their grip on the political landscape of Great Britain. It is highly likely that at future elections no single party will manage to gain an outright majority. The question is, should this be viewed as a bad thing?

My answer would be that it shouldn’t. It must be seen as an opportunity for politics to move away from the type of politics typified by Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons, to a politics of debate, negotiation and compromise. Most other countries seem to manage this, so why can’t we?