Blue Eyes has pointed out quite succinctly the logical disconnect in Liberal Democrat thinking. Put simply, Nick Clegg and his colleagues have suffered a massive electoral rejection. Electoral reform, so long a central plank of their manifestos and a redline in the Coalition negotiations, has been rejected so thoroughly by the voters that it is off the agenda for a generation. Lib Dem councillors and MSPs have been losing their seats across the UK.
Clearly, no-one agrees with Nick any more. We have seen what they are like in (or , at least, near) power and have said quite clearly that we don't like it.
Therefore, in Cleggland, the answer is, of course “a louder Lib Dem voice in government". It is time, says Nick, for the Lib Dems to insist on "significant changes to the planned NHS revamp", meaning he will "block the legislation unless he [is] happy with it".
Just to be absolutely clear, this is the rejected party saying it will make damn sure its views and policies* are the ones that have effect. No wonder they supported AV.
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*this week's policies, anyway. Clegg is on record supporting the NHS reforms.
From facilitator to obstructer; that'll teach Nick Clegg not to let his feelings get the better of him.
ReplyDeleteMore importantly, why couldn't we have had a referendum on being in the EU?
Silly Lib Dems.
Thanks for the link!
ReplyDeleteClegg's manifesto on the NHS was almost indistinguishable from the Tories' which made the coalition reforms look like they should breeze through with an issue. How surprising (NOT!) that in the face of media outcry the LDs start to back down. Losers.
Measured - No need for a referendum. We know what the answer will be.
ReplyDeleteReferenda are for when the electorate's view on a subject is needed but is not known. Here, the electorate's view is not wanted. That is a different problem altogether...
Blue - quite. Perhaps he should just stand up and say "Oh, we only suggested that because it sounded like it would get us votes. We never thought we'd actually have to do it..."
Well my unsolicited straw poll with some colleagues today has shown that the consensus opinion is that "the NHS has far too many chiefs and not enough Indians", that "in the old days the NHS worked much better without all the managers" but that putting GPs in charge of commissioning is not the way forward. It seems that a huge number of people think that a magic wand can be waved over the NHS to make it better and less wasteful without any structural changes whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteAnother 5-10 years of treading water methinks. Clegg at least is with the Zeitgeist on this one. Funny that.