'This isn't a LibCon Coalition, it's not Con-Lib, not even ConDem... it's a Tory-led government'

Tim Montgomerie

According to The Observer - and confirmed by James Forsyth in the Mail on Sunday - "Ed Miliband has banned the shadow cabinet from using the word "coalition" to describe the government because it sounds too moderate and reasonable, and fails to convey what he says is its true "ideological, rightwing agenda"." It continues:

"In a memo to his front-bench team, obtained by the Observer, the Labour leader's director of policy, Greg Beales, says that from now on they must use the term "Conservative-led government" to describe the alliance of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats... The intention is also to portray Nick Clegg as largely powerless to affect the direction of coalition policy. Labour believes that, if it can promote a sense that Clegg is in the pocket of the Tories, this will fuel doubts among ordinary Lib Dems about their place in the coalition and undermine its stability."

In this week's New Statesman Mehdi Hasan had prepared the ground for Mr Miliband (perhaps he suggested the tactic?). He said that Tories were in charge of every key ministry. He said that Conservatives hadn't had to swallow the key of u-turn that LibDems made on tuition fees and, also, "more humiliation" was to come for Lib Dems on, for example, control orders. Like Paul Goodman on Friday, Mehdi concludes with a historical observation:

"Conservative-Liberal coalitions in Britain tend to end up being dominated by the Tories. As the constitutional historian Vernon Bogdanor wrote on these pages in May: "The Liberal Unionists of 1886 and Liberal Nationals of 1931 were swallowed whole by the Conservatives, while the independent Liberals left the Conservative-dominated national government after just one year in 1932, in protest at an imperial tariff." Why should it be different this time around?"

> ConHome's stock-take of concessions between the Coalition partners shows that Tories have given significant ground on issues.

The Left starts to create new fora for Lib-Lab co-operation

Tim Montgomerie

Labour (and most of the Right) always thought of the Liberal Democrats as a left-wing party. Most LibDem activists still do and, earlier this week Jonathan Isaby wrote about the success of "Coalition-sceptics", like Tim Farron, in internal elections. On LabourList today, Anthony Painter has written about the end of the budding LibLab romance that so many on the Left had such high hopes for. In an open letter to Liberal Democrats he writes:

"What I’d really like you to know is that though we can never be as close again there is a way we can be friends. When you are over the heady early few months of romance, you may realise that you just went too far. Really, I want you to be happy but if you need our friendship once things become harder and colder, do get in touch again."

Well, work is underway to rebuild a LibLab friendship, perhaps drawing inspiration from Simon Hughes likening the Coalition to a loveless marriage. The Guardian reports how this is happening through the AV campaign where many Labour and LibDem MPs are joining together in the common cause of attempting to kill off First Past The Post. Even more interesting is the Latimer Project, a project that Will Straw describes at LeftFootForward. The project has four themes:

1. How can British progressives learn lessons from recent political renewals in the US and UK?
2. What is the funding, impact, and organisation of the British conservative ecosystem?
3. How does the progressive left do by comparison?
4. What more is needed?

On the Right side of the fence efforts are also underway to explore future LibCon co-operation. The Coalition 2.0 project - described here - is part of that.

Ed Miliband hopes that Clegg-bashing might give him the edge over his brother

By Tim Montgomerie

It appears to be 'Get Clegg Day' in the grid of Ed Miliband's leadership campaign.

With more evidence yesterday that brother David has the edge in the leadership race, the man who wrote the manifesto for Gordon Brown's 2010 campaign has blasted the Liberal Democrat leader in an open letter to LibDem members in The Guardian:

"[The Liberal Democrats] are a party of proud traditions: of Keynes, Lloyd George and Beveridge. But it is increasingly clear that these traditions are being abandoned by Clegg as he goes along with damaging cuts in public spending undermining economic growth, tax rises hitting the poorest hardest, and a clear threat to the universal welfare state. Our society is at risk of being reshaped in ways that will devastate the proud legacy of liberalism. We see a free market philosophy being applied to our schools, wasteful top-down reorganisation of our NHS, and the undermining of our green credentials with cuts to investment. At some point you have to conclude that this is not a mistake here or there, but part of a pattern. The pattern is of a leadership that has sold out and betrayed your traditions, including that of your recent leadership: Steel, Ashdown, Kennedy and Campbell."

Ed Miliband argues that his newly-discovered support for a graduate tax, opposition to ID cards and his previously secret conclusion that the Iraq war was a "profound mistake" make him the ideal person to attract even more LibDem supporters away from the Coalition (YouGov again had Clegg's party at 12% overnight).

In The Telegraph Mary Riddell identifies Ed's Clegg-bashing and David Miliband's reluctance to do the same* as the most interesting faultline in the Labour leadership race:

"The Lib Dem question could be a game-changer. For the first time, Ed's attacking instincts and David's gloves-on restraint offer a simple choice both to friends and to the enemies who have caricatured them as Tweedledum and Tweedledumber."

The danger of this Clegg bashing is that, as in Aesop's fable, the huffing and puffing against Nick Clegg may actually push him closer to Cameron. The building of a sunnier alternative within the Labour fold for Liberal Democrats is probably more likely to destabilise the Coalition.

* I'm not sure it's as simple as that. David Miliband has, as Mary Riddell notes, called Clegg "the dumb waiter" and "dead parrot".

Labour's huffing and puffing won't break the Coalition

Labour MP Tom Watson tweeted this last night:

Is this really the most sensible approach that Labour could adopt? At some point Labour may need the Liberal Democrats as Coalition partners. Mr Watson's language - late on a Saturday evening - is markedly more personal than the attack deployed by Harriet Harman earlier in the week.

I'm reminded of Aesop's fable of the wind and sun;

"The North Wind boasted of great strength. The Sun argued that there was great power in gentleness.

"We shall have a contest," said the Sun.

Far below, a man traveled a winding road. He was wearing a warm winter coat.

"As a test of strength," said the Sun, "Let us see which of us can take the coat off of that man."

"It will be quite simple for me to force him to remove his coat," bragged the Wind.

The Wind blew so hard, the birds clung to the trees. The world was filled with dust and leaves. But the harder the wind blew down the road, the tighter the shivering man clung to his coat.

Then, the Sun came out from behind a cloud. Sun warmed the air and the frosty ground. The man on the road unbuttoned his coat.

The sun grew slowly brighter and brighter.

Soon the man felt so hot, he took off his coat and sat down in a shady spot.

"How did you do that?" said the Wind.

"It was easy," said the Sun, "I lit the day. Through gentleness I got my way.""

For Andrew Rawnsley in The Observer, Labour needs to worm away at Liberal Democrat self-doubts;

"What will wound [Nick Clegg's] sense of himself and erode his position with his party is being seen as the neutered subordinate of the Tories. There will be a voice in every Lib Dem ear whispering: "We're being used, we're being used, and everyone can see it." It doesn't even have to be all that true to start hurting. This worm of unease is already niggling in their guts. If it grows, it could gnaw away at the foundations of this coalition until it comes tumbling down."