HAIRY SHIRTS

How will the Liberal Democrats present arguments about cutting public spending at the general election? This is a conundrum being wrested with, since sounding too gung-ho about cuts does the reverse double of making the party sound indistinguishable from the Tories while offering the electorate no cause for optimism (blood, sweat and tears only works in wartime as a political platform).

Nick Clegg’s ‘savage cuts’ line was hastily and rightly junked at conference (Liberator 336), but what will replace it?

Attendees at the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors’ Kickstart weekend in Birmingham in late November were startled by polling evidence presented by campaigns director Hilary Stephenson, which appeared to some to argue that voters wanted change, the Tories represented ‘change’, therefore the Lib Dems should not attack the Tories. If this were what she meant, it would be a bit awkward for Lib Dem MPs facing challenges from Tories.

But shadow chancellor Vince Cable has sometimes sounded tough on cuts and at other times argued that the Tories want to go too far too fast, so how will he square this circle, in particular without sounding close to the politically toxic dump that is the Labour Party?

One MP told Liberator: “Vince is attacking the Tories on the ground that they are proposing to cut public spending too early and will restart the recession – but the emerging line is also to attack them on the ground that their cuts will be unfair, that they will favour the very wealthy and kick those who depend on public services in the teeth.

“There is understandable anxiety about being seen to have anything to do with Labour, because the stink of rotting flesh will attach to anyone who gets anywhere near it, but that does not mean that we will restrain ourselves in attacking the Tories.”

Another said there was “some feeling that we are being too hair shirt in going further than the other two parties in specifying exactly where cuts could fall. The electorate say they accept the need for cuts – but not once they realise that it could affect them.

“Even at its highest, the debt-to-GDP ratio will reach about 70 to 80%, which is actually ‘normal’ for many leading European countries such as Germany.”

Perhaps the MPs’ awayday in mid-December could have provided an opportunity to thrash all this out and avoid the confusion over policy seen at Bournemouth.

However, one who attended opined that the late Lord Holme himself (fixer to Messrs Ashdown and Steel) would have been proud of the way in which MPs there “were denied a discussion of anything we wanted to talk about”.

As Liberator went to press, Clegg announced (11 January) that he would “shelve cherished party pledges”, including a six-year delay to the end of tuition fees. The party’s Federal Policy Committee rolled over and accepted this on the grounds that it would make the party look “credible”. But as one MP remarked, ‘credible’ is “an adjective often applied to the performance of the losing team.”

Also in Radical Bulletin 337:

• WHO IS THE FAT CONTROLLER?
• OH, DO THE HOKEY-COKEY
• OUT OF THE BROWN STUFF
• WAY OUT WEST
• REDBRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER
• TOP OF THE POPES
• GREAT UNMANSIONABLE
• WE’VE GOT THE BLUES