The Staggers

The New Statesman’s rolling politics blog

Labour should stop flirting with the toxic Lib Dems

There is nothing progressive left in the party of Clegg, Laws and Alexander, writes Simon Danczuk MP.

By Simon Danczuk Published 30 September 2012 10:30

Nick Clegg gestures at his party's conference. Photograph: Getty Images

It was Bill Shankly who famously said, "first is first and second is nowhere". At half time in this parliamentary term there are some in the Labour Party who’d do well to listen to the former Liverpool maestro. Heading towards a General Election we should be doing all we can to cultivate a winning spirit and not contemplate for one second the prospect of losing and forming a Coalition with the Liberal Democrats. Our energies should be firmly fixed on winning a majority not thinking about a coalition consolation prize.

Harriet Harman is right to say there should be “no cosying up to the Lib Dems”, but there remains a residual persistence in some quarters to continue some sort of dalliance. This appears to be built around the fanciful notion of a "progressive alliance", which is completely at odds with the reality of Clegg’s party.

There simply is no point pretending the party of Clegg, Laws and Alexander is a progressive force. Despite their pantomime conference caricatures of nasty Tories every year the reality backstage is that many Liberal Democrats in the Coalition are extremely comfortable with their Conservative counterparts. You didn’t have to look far from the main stage at last year’s Liberal Democrat conference to witness a love-in between Greg Clark and Ed Davey. These people deserve each other.

Troweling a thin veneer of progressive politics onto the Liberal Democrats is pointless. Their brand is toxic. Anyone who has campaigned against the Liberal Democrats in a marginal seat will know the Liberal Democrat values that Nick Clegg boasts of are a myth. The only value they hold is that of survival.

“A candidate must be a chameleon, adapting to each person he meets,” reasoned Cicero in 65 B.C and Liberal Democrats follow this to the letter, making all kinds of promises to every voter and practicing their usual brand of gravity defying contortionism.

Joining forces with a party whose Effective Opposition handbook advises activists to “be wicked, act shamelessly, stir endlessly,” can only be seen as a regressive step.

Worse still, we run the risk of presenting our opponents with the slogan of ‘Vote Ed Miliband, get Nick Clegg’. We should be straining every sinew to build on the momentum that Ed Miliband is creating and leave the Liberal Democrats behind in the slow lane.

There are, of course, many who say that coalitions are here to stay but that argument cuts no ice with me. This is the first coalition we’ve had in 70 years and it clearly isn’t working. The rose garden rhetoric of providing stability for the country has given way to a painful reality of Downing Street dithering, a double dip recession and coalition paralysis afflicting policy making. The country needs dynamic and decisive government not endless spats and bickering between Liberal Democrats and Tories.

We should be learning lessons from the coalition’s many failings not seeking to repeat their mistakes. It’s clear that both parties can’t be trusted as tribalism has long since replaced the good intentions behind the coalition agreement. And if the Liberal Democrats can’t be trusted in Government now why should they be trusted in 2015? Having lost out on getting most of their policies through Government this time round no doubt they would be much more ruthless next time and who knows what ridiculous policies they’d try and force on the Labour Party.

When the coalition was formed it was largely supported by the public. But I no longer detect any public appetite for more coalitions. It’s left a bad taste. Too much policy cross dressing just looks like political parties have lost any sense of identity and are being led by shallow expediency rather than a real conviction or sense of purpose. We should never lose sight of this. Now is the time to replace a mentality of wooing with one of winning.

Simon Danczuk is Labour MP for Rochdale

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13 comments

Tue, 2012-10-09 11:13 — ndru81 (not verified)

Additionally, there is a word that describes a message board that contains only positive, constructive commentary, without a single word of complaint or a troll. That word is "dead." Be thankful that you have the negative to balance the positive, because once people stop talking about a thing, it becomes a dead thing.

Mon, 2012-10-01 11:51 — I'll have a Pannone please (not verified)

Dancazuk has a infamously thin skin. He went round for weeks after the election flourishing a leaflet that said he came from Blackburn and claiming that this was an outright lie. In fact he comes from Darwen and he was trying to equate this 'lie' with the viciously racist and criminal leaflets that had been put out in Oldham East by many of Danczuk's Rochdale party members.

Mon, 2012-10-01 11:46 — Johan Stumpe (not verified)

It is remarkable, that Labour governments, with the exception of the government which ended on the Korea war boom in 1951, always end with higher unemployment than they started with. Labour should rename itself to "Unemployment party" or "Poverty party".

The voters of Rochdale must be insane to vote for Labour again. The most interesting thing to watch will be to see the two big parties drop below 60% next time.

Thu, 2012-10-18 13:19 — Jim Reid (not verified)

I can't stop laughing at your ridiculous claims about Labour and unemployment. Do you not know that Labour reduced unemployment to its lowest ever level? In contrast here's a list of what the Tory-led coalition have done - highest ever level of unemployment between those aged 18-24; highest ever level of female unemployment; highest ever level of female unemployment for women in their 50s; highest level of people unemployed for over a year since the Tories were last in power in 1995; highest ever overall unemployment since the Tories were last in power in 1994!!

Mon, 2012-10-01 11:39 — mike cobley (not verified)

Simon, you're making the same mistake as many political commentators do, that of depicting a political party as some kind of homogenous, undifferentiated mass. As an LD party member, I agree, the Clegg leadership is toxic and has gone beyond the point of redemption, and there is a substantial portion of the membership who seem happy to go along with their death march into oblivion.

But there still remains a social liberal/social democrat element hanging grimly on, resolved not to surrender to the Orangebookers and their 19th century liberal idee fixe. After all, when the Clegg experiment comes crashing down, who else is going to have to step up?

Mon, 2012-10-01 11:10 — Sid Cumberland (not verified)

"There are, of course, many who say that coalitions are here to stay but that argument cuts no ice with me. This is the first coalition we’ve had in 70 years ..."

You may need to check out some figures ... in 1951, 97% of the vote went to the Tories or Labour. In 2010, that figure was 65%. If those figures don't make you think, you're in trouble.

Mon, 2012-10-01 09:34 — Eddy S (not verified)

Stop creating differences, the differences are not too great, all the parties are committed to deficit reduction, when you are judged on outcomes achieving it is much more difficult than talking about it, we may talk about freezing public sector wages, but if we were in power there is not much different we would do. What we do need to do is reduce state benefits and services and invest a hell of alot more on infrastructure and education. We need to invest in tidal energy generation, high speed rail, new hub airport some more central in the UK, super fast broadband backbones, flood defences just to start with (putting too much money into benefits and state services rather than jobs will instill structural deficits, not empower the private sector in the north, scotland and northern ireland and exasperate long term problems).

Sun, 2012-09-30 16:21 — Stuart Eels (not verified)

Then again, none of you nor Simon Danczuk have taken the boundary changes nor a winning referendum by Alex Salmond's SNP into consideration.

No doubt someone will correct me if wrong but I believe Scotland returns 60+ Labour MPs at every General Election that won't be there if the SNP win.

Then again is there going to be a Lib/Dem party to talk to after the election?

Sun, 2012-09-30 16:10 — willoyen

certainly the labour party should not risk pollution and corruption by association with the toxic lib-dems, up to all the dirt imaginable: “be wicked, act shamelessly, stir endlessly,” Let's keep to people like the clean-breasted Mr Danczuk, MP. Oh, but what does Wikipedia tell us? oh, shocking:
"Local members [of the Rochdale labour party] were concerned that the short-listing process [in Danczuk's acrimonious selection process] was deliberately manipulated in order to exclude Afzal Khan, a Manchester councillor, who had received the highest number of nominations. In August 2006, Tribune magazine revealed that Danczuk's company Vision 21 had sent questionnaires to Labour members in Rochdale on behalf of the regional party - giving him an alleged unfair advantage " Never mind, the Lib-Dems must be even more toxic than the likes of Mr Danczuk MP.

Sun, 2012-09-30 15:52 — Stuart Eels (not verified)

Then again, none of you including Simon Danczuk seem to have taken the 2014 referendum in Scotland into consideration and boundary chages if thry happen.

No doubt someone will correct me if wrong but I believe Scotland returns 60+ Labour MPs each election if Alex salmond wins Labour would find it very hard to form a majority without them.

I actually believe there won't be much of a Lib/Dem party to form an alliance with after the next election anyway.

Sun, 2012-09-30 14:55 — Benjamin Rae (not verified)

The country didn't vote for a Tory majority though. What they got was the most right wing government post war. They are doing things to vulnerable people that even Thatcher didn't do.
Lib Dems have to stop lying to themselves and others.

Sun, 2012-09-30 13:28 — Do me a favour (not verified)

"This is the first coalition we’ve had in 70 years and it clearly isn’t working"

You'd prefer an unfettered Tory party in power instead?? The Lib Dems have done themselves no favours in their choice but at least they're slightly more effective than King Canute against the pleb-drowning Tory tide.