As “Cleggmania” shows little sign of subsiding after two of the three leaders’ debates have come and gone, it is clear that all three main parties have a huge challenge on their hands in attempts to get their messages across. But whilst the two older parties have focused on peddling the language of fear, the Liberal Democrats are simply doing and saying the same things we always did.
On the surface of it, Labour most wants us to fear returning a Conservative government if we vote Liberal Democrat, and above all else the Conservatives want us to fear a hung parliament as this, they say, will lead to a weak, dithering government, and in turn “the markets” will turn against our country leading to a downward economic spiral. Both these points seek to exclude even the possibility that Liberal Democrat policies make sense. They don’t actually tackle the ideas of the policies being questioned, but seek explicitly to place them in a context of fear.
The two old parties are not trying to earn your vote through a battle of policies, but through promoting a fear of anybody but them, and of anything but their policies. However, the only context in which I feel you should view the Liberal Democrats is a context of hope.
The central fears of both the Conservative and Labour party are actually two sides of the same coin. If your party has the most to gain from a dusty old First Past The Post (FPTP) system then it’s odds on that you’ll defend that system to the hilt. Similarly, if your party is vehemently and ideologically opposed to another party, taking advantage of the technicalities of the FPTP system in order to argue that voting for what you want might result in you getting something else surely demonstrates that the FPTP system has past it’s sell by date.
In truth the fear which being projected onto us by the old parties is simply the logical manifestations of their own ideological dogmas. Don’t want a Conservative government? Vote Labour! Want a “strong” government? Vote Conservative, it’s their turn this time around, isn’t it? These oblique arguments are an attempt to mask the fact that the current system does not represent the interests of the public, but the interests of a narrow band of politicians.
If nothing else, this election has turned the spotlight on this ongoing charade, and highlighted the fact that it is the Liberal Democrats who have been pushing for a fairer Proportional Representation (PR) system for the UK.
Across Europe proportional representation is in fact the norm, and we would do well to note that having a ‘hung’ parliament (the term ‘balanced parliament’ does seem more appropriate) in Germany has not led to a complete implosion of the political system. Quite the opposite. Germany is coping well with the Global recession. On the other hand, if we look to Greece, we see a version of FPTP where the leading party needs to control at least 151 seats of a 300 seat parliament to command power. Why has this not saved Greece from recently going cap in hand to the IMF? So much for markets requiring an authoritarian government to inspire inward investment!
Analysis indicates that being in a “safe” seat seems to make it more likely that an MP is embroiled in expenses scandals. A PR system would abolish safe seats and will ensure that your MP will work hard for you and not expect an easy ride at election time.
The Liberal Democrats have championed the electoral reform required to send power from politicians to the voting public, both in terms of offering a PR system, and also in terms of reforming the House of Lords to be a fully-elected second chamber. The Liberal Democrats also think you should have the right to sack corrupt MPs. These are the things a liberal democracy requires, and which the Liberal Democrats have been seeking for years and which only now the older parties are addressing head on, whether they agree with us or not.
And because we don’t see MPs and electoral reform and cleaning up politics as being in a vacuum from the current economic turmoil, Liberal Democrats propose to reduce the number of MPs by 150. The mantra of “more for less” is being applied across the country, why should politicians be exempt?
The old parties tell you that they are offering change, but fundamentally, they want to stick to the same tired politics and the same dusty system. The Liberal Democrats offer real hope and real ideas for change, and change should be embraced, not feared.
