Coalition 2.0 is dead: Questions we should be asking ourselves now
1 February 2012 3 Comments
With news that the Coalition 2.0 is dead i.e. a new agreement outlining the Coalition Government’s agenda for the next few years because they have realized that “running the country is harder than they had thought”, now is a good time to look at what our response should be for the next few years. Solution Focused questions can offer an interesting view on this.
From the voters’ point of view:
- What pleased our voters since being in Coalition?
- How did we do that?
- How could we do more of that?
- What first step can we take right now to make more of that?
- Imagine our voters coming in and asking us straight what they really want. What would they ask?
- How are we going to provide it?
From our members’ point of view
- What pleased our members since being in Coalition?
- How did the party do that?
- How could the party do more of that?
- What first step can the party take right now to make more of that?
- Imagine our members coming in and asking us straight what they really want. What would they ask?
- How are we going to provide it?
If the press are representative of public opinion (which they are not, but if they were) then this perhaps gives a good example of what some of the answers to the questions would be here, here and here. But time has moved on since then and I have noticed there has been a reduction in praise for the Lib Dems in the media since June 2011. Having said that Clegg does seem to have stepped up his game recently which seems to have been noticed by some so there is plenty to work from in answering these questions.
The problem the Lib Dems have is that generally we have a problem saturated narrative in the public. When I talk to people about the Lib Dems they immediately talk of the problems there are with the party, Nick Clegg or the Coalition. They talk about us having lost our voice and having got nothing out of being in Government. Now this is clearly not true but it is a dangerous narrative.
The party did start pushing our ‘wins’ more aggressively but it didn’t work, partly because people don’t care about policy, they care about how the story. What we need to show people is that there is a positive story to tell about the Lib Dems and answering these questions would go some way to showing what this story is. The NHS, Welfare and Higher Education Reform has dominated our story and this bears out on the doorstep.
It is time to show people we have a different story to tell.
I’m not convinced regarding your suggested method, Clegg has recently been trying your approach and seemingly failing (10k Tax Threshold=win; ergo bring forward=fail). This is because only a disruptive event can changed a solidified narrative; we don’t need to do more of anything, we need to do something else. Also, your suggested method relies on the public/voter/member knowing what they want, or even what they like, I’d suggest that unlikely too.
The only real answer to our fortunes is to start pulling bunnies out of hats. They’ve seen the hoop trick, the handkerchiefs, the flowers and they’re bored of them; doing them better or more (or less) won’t help. The only thing that prevents this happening are new ideas – I’ve got loads of them and I’m sure many others have, but I’m not in the mood to share because I don’t want Clegg to surivive, I want to move on. This is one of the fundamental issues of now – apathy. I don’t care, politically, and neither do many others. I’m not trying to save the party or solve a problem, in fact, I want this to happen because it’s no longer the party I recognise, so I welcome its demise (bit worried about the 5 years with next to no Liberal parliamentary representation though).
There are insoluble games; and your “solution focused approach” makes no account for these. With certain rulesets stalemate is inevitable (e.g. 0′s and x’s, once you both know the rules), and I believe we’re reaching one. We know that most of our pieces on the board are doomed, and many of us have no intention on helping to save those pieces as we usually do.
Disruption can be better than a solution.
Hi Chris,
Sounds a bit like you think that Clegg could survive after the next election? I wonder what you think our polling would need to be for him to survive? And I wonder how low you would be happy for us to get to in the election? I know many people feel the same as you right now and people in my local party feel the same and it worries me that we will lose them. I don’t want to lose good people in the local party because of the things people at the top have agreed to. I wonder if people who feel this strongly should make a ground swell to replace him. I don’t agree on what the national party has agreed to (particularly recently) and I have had some criticism for saying so – I was called a ‘nutjob’ on Facebook the other day as well as other things which I thought was harsh. I wonder if people in our party are scared of being challenged?
What do you think of the Social Liberal Forum?
Hey Matthew,
It’s hard to say what may happen to Clegg – he’s in a safe seat, even the most disquiet Lib Dem supporter would think twice before trying to push him out (still full of Kennedy regretamine). He can’t step down, because he’s locked into the coalition, it’s unlikely he’d be able to give a successor a worthy shot at leading the party unless he stepped down soon, Huhne is another name off the potential leader list (which is looking pretty slim to me). New leader / replacing Clegg is very unlikely, so if current polling translates to votes he’ll step down in the days after the next election. The party’s chance to replace him came and went, I think he’ll stick it out now until he’s properly defeated.
There is still the potential for a wildcard : Clegg announces something genuinely liberal and radical, we all put aside our differences and go on to retain vote share. It would have to be something substantial – like the 10k tax threshold; having deep implications for the economic future of the country. Maybe there will be an economic boom and all newspapers decide he’s not such a bad chap after all; seems pretty unlikely, with the facts we have to go on there’s little light to be seen at the end of tunnel.
The emergence of the social liberal forum (and possibly a centre right counterpart) does little to fill me with confidence; nor Lib Dems calling each other “nutjobs”; which was the sort of insult leveled at us for years, members should remembered this. I’m not against what I’ve seen of the SLF, more its existence; I hoped the broader party would be concerned about economic and social liberal issues, and there would be no need of such groups.
I’m certainly not happy about the prospect of 5 years without lib dem representation in Parliament, I just don’t feel motivated to do anything about it. If that results in a cull of MPs, then so be it; whatever it takes for the party to rejuvenate, anything is better than stalemate. There will be an election and we will have to choose which MP we want to represent us. I’ll find it hard to stay away from the polling station, on the other hand, I don’t feel like my vote is worth what it used to be – if the party can change that feeling then who knows, otherwise there’s going to be a lot of time to reflect between general elections. We don’t have a local candidate here atm for MP, so maybe they can persuade me otherwise.
The one big positive – none of this has made me consider voting for another party.