Pity the poor Lib Dems. In May this year, after winning fewer seats than they did in 2005 under Charles Kennedy, the “third” party of British politics was offered a seat at the top table by David Cameron and the Conservatives. Those of us who suggested that joining a full coalition with the Tories would be a bad move, and even potentially self-destructive, were ignored and ridiculed. ” ‘Supply and confidence’? That’s for wimps,” seemed to be the refrain of the Orange Bookers.
The coalition, however, has not been kind to the Lib Dems. Consider the policy record. In-year spending cuts, tuition fees trebled, free schools, NHS reorganisation, Trident renewal, new nuclear power stations on the way and – in the new year – control orders likely to be retained in some shape or form. The party is down to 8 or 9 per cent in the opinion polls, depending on which polling organisation you choose to believe.
Then there is the fate of individual ministers. David Laws had to “out” himself as a homosexual and resign in the space of 17 days. Chris Huhne was “outed” as an adulterer and had to split with his wife. Nick Clegg, once the most popular politician in Britain, has seen effigies of himself burned on the streets of central London by the same students who cheered him as he arrived at their campuses in his yellow battle bus during the election campaign in April.
And then there is St Vince of Cable. Uncle Vince. The man who predicted the crash. The dancer. The father of the nation. I’ve had my fair share of run-ins with the Business Secretary, both in print and on air, but I’m astounded at what’s been revealed in the past 24 hours. The revelations in the Telegraph about his private views on the coalition, the Tories, the child benefit cut, “Maoism” in NHS reform, his own “nuclear” resignation option and, of course, Rupert Murdoch have rightly dominated the headlines and given Cameron and Clegg a headache.
How did a man so admired by the media and the public at large, seemingly so wise and so restrained, make such a stupid mistake? Why on earth did he run his mouth to two “constituents” that he’d just bumped into in his surgery? Did he ever imagine that his cabinet career, begun at the age of 67, would be on the verge of an ignominous end within just eight months, as a result of a self-inflicted wound? There is talk of him doing a job swap with the (Tory) International Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, and staying in the coalition cabinet but, personally, I don’t see how he can survive these revelations. His insubordination, arrogance, indiscretion and misjudgement have embarrassed the coalition; his decision to brag about his “war” with the Murdoch empire, much as I admire and applaud the underlying sentiment, makes him unfit to be the Business Secretary who has to adjudicate in the inquiry into the Murdoch-owned NewsCorp takeover of BSkyB.
But, I have to say, covering coalition politics is so much fun. It certainly keeps us journos busy. Even in the run-up to Christmas, it seems, the intrigue, speculation and controversy in Westminster never end.
On a side note, however, and given the Telegraph claims to have more tapes of more loose-lipped Lib Dem ministers (Norman Baker? Sarah Teather? Huhne??), it’s worth asking: was it ethical, let alone legal, for the Telegraph to carry out this “sting” operation? Whatever happened to the privacy that MPs expect inside their constituency surgeries? Where’s the public-interest argument for undercover journos secretly recording the gossipy views of an MP in his constituency surgery? I can’t see it (though, as I said, I don’t deny I’m enjoying the political and media fallout from the sting).
As the Guardian‘s Michael White writes:
My feeling is that there was no public-interest justification for the Telegraph sting. It’s not as if the tape proved that Vince likes cocaine or underage rent boys, both illegal activities and thus legitimate targets of press inquiry – as was the News of the World‘s Pakistani match-fixing probe, but not its hacking into royal or celeb gossip.
. . . Vince will not walk the plank. He might well be within his rights to find a means to sue or report the paper for breach of parliamentary privilege – which the sting surely was in interfering with his duties as Twickenham’s MP. But politicians have long been cowed and rarely take such steps unless the case is watertight and then some.
Oh, and on a side, side note, you’ve got to both laugh and groan when you hear the response of Labour’s Douglas Alexander to the Cable comments:
He was supposed to be on Strictly Come Dancing, but in fact he’s dancing on thin ice.
Boom, boom! (Hat-tip: James Kirkup)
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