I'VE GOT A LITTLE LIST

Who promised what to whom during the coalition negotiations will be pored over by historians for decades to come. But the least clear part involves not the discussions between the Lib Dems and the Tories but what went on, or didn't, between the Lib Dems and Labour.

One of the few predictions that can safely be made is that Labour will spend the period until the next general election claiming that it offered the Lib Dems the Earth but they preferred a deal with the Tories.

So, did they? No-one Liberator has spoken to says that a formal offer from Labour ever existed. There were certainly talks (during which some offers were made) and reports back from these, but the 'Labour offer' seems to be the Loch Ness Monster of politics - everyone knows what they think it looks like but there have been no firm sightings.

Labour's mouthpiece in the Guardian Polly Toynbee claimed to have “The authenticated list of what Labour offered the Lib Dems: a new levy on banking, the mansion tax on high-priced property, raising personal allowances to the Lib Dems to  (at the same pace as the Tories' offer), no ID cards, the DNA database cut, fixed-term parliaments, an alternative vote referendum Labour would campaign for (the Tories won't), the Wright plans for Commons reform and fair party funding, no third runway at Heathrow, new freedom of information laws.”

Leaving aside the question 'authenticated by whom?' why did such an apparent scoop get buried in Toynbee's column rather then run as a news story? The best guess is because it wasn't the list the Lib Dems understood they were offered.

When Lib Dem MPs met on the Saturday morning following the election, the prevailing mood was to avoid all deals, but that mood changed as they contemplated the awful possibility of a second election later this year, which could well wipe out most of them.

By the Monday, many of them had been agreeably surprised at the deal being offered by the Tories, but wanted both to hear, and be seen to hear, what Labour had to offer. Discreet soundings had been taken with Labour, but the MPs wanted this out in the open for fear of accusations of secret dealings.

The peers and the Federal Executive endorsed this, and lines were opened to Labour to say the Lib Dems wanted an offer that must include electoral reform, which at that point the Tories had neither offered nor seemed likely to.

Paddy Ashdown used his connections to make it plain to Labour that Gordon Brown would have to go for any deal to be saleable in public. He sought advice from former Lib Dem chief executive Chris Rennard on whether the numbers would work for a Labour/ Lib Dem coalition - which would have been tricky, but possible if Labour held together.

The potential route to electoral reform suggested was for Labour to legislate for AV forthwith and then hold a referendum on STV at the same time as the next general election, which would have been fixed for a four-yearly interval.

But Lib Dem negotiators found Labour's teams telling them they could not deliver even on an AV referendum, although it had been in the Labour manifesto, because too many Labour MPs opposed it.

Brown's departure had been intended to make a Lib Dem/Lab coalition easier, but instead made it more difficult as Labour figures' attention switched to their forthcoming leadership election.

A deal with the Tories would still have fallen through if David Cameron had not suddenly conceded the AV referendum. Even David Laws, a figure normally thought better disposed then most towards the Tories, is understood to have said he could not have recommended it otherwise.

The combination of Brown's resignation and the mere fact of Lib Dems talking to Labour did however put great pressure on Cameron to concede the AV referendum and, by the Monday night, it appeared to MPs that the Tory deal was both acceptable and probably the only one on offer.

Lib Dems MPs did not noticeably divide in their opinions on this between those who have the Tories and Labour as the main local opponents.

By the time Labour's authoritarian thug tendency (David Blunkett, John Reid, etc.) began to denounce any Lib Dem deal in public the following day, it was obvious that no alternative would work because Labour would not hold together.

The SNP had not been an integral part of the coalition but the assumption had been that it would support electoral reform and find it hard to vote with the Tories. Douglas Alexander's announcement that Labour would never work with the SNP was another nail in the coffin.

When Lib Dem MPs, peers and FE members met on the Tuesday night, the only dissent from the Tory deal came from former MP David Rendel, who wanted something stronger on electoral reform for the long term than the AV referendum, which he feared might be lost.

Also in Radical Bulletin 339:

• WHERE'S THE CASH?
• WHAT A BUNCH OF LEADERS
• VICTIMS OF MANIA
• AMNESTY UNINTENTIONAL
• WHO GRABBED ALL THE MONEY?
• REVOLUTION NUMBER 9
• SHOVE IT THROUGH A LETTERBOX
• HARI-KIRI
• LAWS AND DISORDER
• WHO ATE ALL THE PEERS?
• EACH TO THEIR OWN