The Case is Altered

Charlie Kennedy cannot be the only senior Lib-Dem to have deep reservations about the sense of the Clegg-Cameron alliance. He set out the detail in his article for yesterday’s Observer and judging by the bumbling style and irrelevant asides, I am pretty he sure he penned it himself.

Kennedy at least identified the most germane point which was the coalition rides “a coach and horses” through the prospects of a centre-left progressive alliance of Lib-Dem and Labour. On the Andrew Marr show, Daily Mail columnist Amanda Platell showed her political intelligence deficit when she claimed it amounted to a re-newed leadership bid from Charlie Boy. That ship never even had a sail (but no shortage of rum.)

I may not be the only enthusiast supporter of full PR (by AVplus) to have find their zeal waning somewhat. The point of introducing a more proportional system was to keep the Tories out, now Clegg has swooned before Cameron's power, it has lost all momentum. The next election looks a clear 1960s style fight between Labour and Conservative.

The Tory old guard of Peter Tapsell, Bill Cash, and Edward Leigh are suitably horrified by the liberalisation of much of Tory policy. The first test is the 55% threshold for dissolution of Parliament. Cameron is presenting it as his price for selflessly setting fixed terms to five years. It is simply a policy without principle. The only justification is to provide stability in which case the 55% is a thoroughly arbitrary figure. Imposing undemocratic 'bar-raising' in times of severe economic difficulties has long been the justification of tyrants.

It would be extremely painful for the fledgling Government to suffer such an early defeat so it's a huge risk. It is ultimately about Cameron's political inexperience. In truth, I thought his naivety would prevent him from becoming PM, not wait to be fully exposed when he reached office.