Coalition and Conservatives

Coalition politics in the UK is well embarked, and this year’s party conferences – especially the Lib Dem and Conservative ones – provided a useful insight into how it is all progressing.  In short, the Lib Dems wanted to show how different they were from the Tories, while the Tories kept up a smooth, united face in the main hall but saw their right-wing activists in full voice on the fringe.

The fascinating issue with the coalition is the obvious fact that while most of the ministers, from cabinet down, all seem to get on chummily enough (even former Tory right star William Hague was singing the virtues of coalition government in the last few paragraphs of this Observer interview) the two parties’ grassroots have nothing but visceral hatred for the other.  Both of the parties feature coalitionistas and their opponents.  For the Lib Dems, Chris Huhne and Vince Cable were particularly keen to bang the anti-Tory drum, while Danny Alexander and Nick Clegg remain clearly much more tied to their Conservative allies.  Outside the government, Lib Dem president Tim Farron maintained his skeptical stance, and then spent much of his time denying he had any interest in the party leadership in future (so he’s clearly keen).

For the Conservatives, the tone was far politer at their conference, at least from the government representatives.  They, after all, have less to lose at he moment than a fast retreating Lib Dem party.  But Mr. Cameron still faces right-wing discontent, even in his current Napoleonic prime.  Nothing illuminates this more than the present debate surrounding Liam Fox’s Friend.  The problem for Mr. Cameron is that if he is to let Dr. Fox go – an option that must seem quite attractive to him, getting rid as it does of a tiresome and occasionally leaky opponent within the government – then he faces a potential backlash from his party grassroots.  A sign of that came on the Conservative Home website, the only media organization to publish a detailed defence of Liam Fox and to then express the hope that he would continue in office.  Many Tory grassroots would rather see the back of the liberal minded Justice Secretary (Nick Clegg’s “fifth Liberal Democrat”) but, as today’s Independent on Sunday piece points out, Nick Clegg would probably draw a line in the sand underneath Mr. Clarke’s removal.  Liam Fox is much easier to drop as far as the Lib Dems are concerned, after all.

The Independent on Sunday’s article – neatly heralded by Conservative Home on its website and in its tweets – provides a detailed account of some of the flaws of Mr. Cameron.  The authors contend, amongst other things, that his own wealth makes him still out of touch with the travails of ordinary families; his Number 10 communications operation is amateurish and accident-prone; and he has yet to improve the Tory appeal in the North and amongst women voters. 

This conference season showed that the Lib Dems currently feel under most pressure to provide some distance between them and their coalition partners, but Mr. Cameron’s problems suggest that in the long term it will be him, and not Mr. Clegg, who struggles to preside over a united party.  Three and a half years must seem such a short time at the moment.