Over the last few weeks and particularly after the coalition was announced, and also in the run up to the emergency budget, there has been a lot of Labours attacks directed towards the Lib Dems. This has tended to come in the form that Lib Dems have betrayed their voters and, as such, they aren’t progressive.
The first one is really simple to answer and has been by many people but the fact that Labour stressed that a vote for Lib Dems was a vote for Cameron (which it wasn’t), the fact that we clearly laid out that we’d give the first chance to form a government to whatever party had the largest mandate, which we did, and that we are in a parliamentary plurality system so you only vote for you local representative anyway makes this argument redundant.
As for the abandonment of progressive values time will be the true judge of that however the coalition’s policies on civil liberties and commitments to not laden debts on future generation’s seams pretty progressive to me!
But that doesn’t really address the peculiar nature of Labours tactic. We had a net gain of one seat in the election and gained only 1% of the vote and had our best performances against the conservatives. Labour lost far more seats to the conservatives than us, so why not target all your fire power on the conservatives? That is surely the best way to get your votes back is to inform people that all the bad policies were the conservatives fault, gain back those votes and then play down the Lib Dems and make quite references to the fact that they may prop up the conservatives. Surely that would be much more harmful to all involved.
Instead the potential is for the conservatives to lay claim to any achievement and for their brand to be completely detoxified leading to the next period of conservative government for however many years.
Maybe this is just a short term response and the tune will change but I would have gone for a very different approach.
[or maybe I’m paranoid]
Dougf
June 22, 2010
Gollly are most LibDem bloggers so ‘angstsy’ ? No wonder Labour types don’t give you no respect.
Of course they are going to target YOU. You are their primary(only) way to ‘grow’ their vote which has been decaying for several election cycles. They don’t ‘grow’ by attacking the Tories. You are the new and improved ‘class traitor’. What did you expect ? Hugs & Kisses ?
And it’s YOUR fault that Labour is doing this with any real expectation of success. Stop apologizing for doing the Nation’s Business, and embrace the ‘progressive influence’ the LibDems are clearly exerting. Tell Labour that YOU GUYS are doing the real progressive work. Because you are.
And Mean it when you say it.
In the meantime stop worrying and enjoy the ride.
Jen
June 22, 2010
While I mostly agreed with Dougf above, ALSO – Labour still can’t quite get their heads around the idea that the Lib Dems are a separate political party with an entirely different ideological basis from Labour. They always assumed the Libs were a Labour insurance policy, to provide instant and compliant cover in the form of an extra 50 or 60 MPs should Labour’s majority vanish.
chrisjw133
June 22, 2010
Thanks both for commenting but I beg to differ on the point that we have erroded Labours support. This is true to a degree however the effect has certainly been more true upon the Conservatives (with the exception of the post Iraq war reaction.) Most major Lib Dem gains have happend during periods when the Conservatives were suffering. For example during the “Lib Dem surge” the ammount that the Labour vote decreased was not that much but the effect on the conservatives was much more dramatic.
Labour Do infact grow by attacking the tories as that is how they have ALWAYS gained votes amoungst the crucial swing voters that decided elections.
You are however very right that we shouldn’t expect Labour to be all lovey dovey and that it is time to start proving we are the progressive force in britain and that we do have a distinct ideology (as Jen says), something I am sure all Lib Dems want to do. It just doesn’t seam the most effective tactic for Labour to use to win power back.
Dougf
June 22, 2010
“It just doesn’t seam the most effective tactic for Labour to use to win power back.”
Well it does if Labour is becoming concerned that the LibDems might offer a ‘different’ and frankly more AFFORDABLE version of a ‘progressive agenda’. They absolutely cannot have that. And what if by some combination of miracles, the Coalition(not just the Conservatives) are seen in 2015 as having done a pretty good job, under bad circumstances. Maybe a lot of people would want to have a de-facto option such as that type of Coalition in the future.
Maybe Labour fears that the Libdems might become the 1a selection in future elections. Never IN power but always ‘in’ power, and never less than a full partner. I don’t think that Labour fancies its chances in that type of scenario.
In sum, I think Labour is looking further out than the LibDems are. The LibDems might be worried about Regional Elections next year, but Labour is worried about all the future elections for quite some time. It fears becoming trapped in a decaying political ghetto. At least imao, anyways.
paul barker
June 22, 2010
Labours strategy is not a long-term one aimed at votes & seats but a short-term attempt to break up the Coalition. Labour activists have a very poor opinion of LibDems, they think we will crack, I beleive they are wrong.
Labour cant take a long- term view because deep in their hearts they know they have no long-term, their time is past.
Paul Leake
June 22, 2010
They’re doing it as it is probably easier to split away people who voted Lib Dem in May than it is to split away Tory support – Tory supporters knew what they were getting. I’ve not yet met a single Tory who isn’t going to vote Tory again but most of the colleagues I spoke to (albeit in the public sector and miffed by Nick Clegg’s recent comments) voted LD in May, but won’t whenever the next election comes round. The others are keeping the faith despite hating what’s going on solely because of civil liberties issues.