Saturday, May 08, 2010

There is a tide in the affairs of men

One or two people of my acquaintance have expressed the opinion that we would lose a referendum on electoral reform and that therefore Liberal Democrats should do a deal with the Conservatives.

I do not understand this view. All the polls on the subject show that the public support it. If we are not prepared to take the risk, we should just get out of politics. This is the best chance we have ever had to change the voting system and the only chance we will have for many, many years. A deal with Cameron would be utterly worthless. We would share the blame for his disastrous economic policy and fail to achieve any of our own basic policies and, when Cameron felt the time was right, he would pull the plug and go for a new election, at which he could win a majority. Under the current system the public would feel even less inclined to vote for a third party and the Tories would have more money to fight the campaign than anyone else.

“There is a tide in the affairs of men” and we don’t take it at the flood, we deserve to drown.

1 comment:

neil craig said...

I don't understasnd the reasoning here.

The LibDems should do a deal for PR even though you would, for some inexplicable reason, lose?

They should not do a deal even though it would mean Cameron could go to the country on a platform that the LDs had refused to share power & that thus if the electorate want a government they must go Tory or labour?

Neither of these mutually exclusive positions seems very sane.