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The main criticism of the party leadership after the terrible European election results has come from those who see themselves on the ‘Fairer Society’ wing of the party. Over the last 4 years the Conservatives in the Coalition have swung more and more to the right on the NHS, welfare and immigration, making the decision to enter the coalition more and more untenable. Liberal Democrats in Government have continued to feel themselves constrained by ‘cabinet collective responsibility’ (CCR) even as the rightward shift has undermined the Liberal Democrat position on a ‘Fairer Society’
There is a very simple solution, namely to refuse to accept CCR in areas which continue to undermine the Liberal Democrat position.
In supporting the Coalition’s austerity policy, the Liberal Democrats had to accept the Tory plan that the majority of the reduction in the deficit should come from cuts in spending rather than increases in taxation. However, the reductions in welfare in particular gave rise to gross inequalities through callous implementation of measures such as the “Bedroom Tax”. The downward pressure on local authority budgets also had a disproportionate impact on social care, making welfare cuts even more unacceptable. The reductions in capital spending, especially in housing have also had a distorting impact on the recovery of the economy. The Liberal Democrats in Government have been tarred with these policies, which in the public mind have overshadowed the party’s major successes, such as taking lower paid people out of income tax and the triple lock for pensioners.
For the next year the Liberal Democrats have to make a case for continuing deficit reduction whilst at the same time removing the unfairnesses which have become part of the system. The unsung heroes of this Parliament, the Commons Select Committees have produced pages of research highlighting the worst excesses of Coalition policy, and this is backed up by numerous research papers by Non-Governmental Organisations and academics. These could all be used to propose policies to increase fairness and if not then increased taxation will have to be introduced to pay for increased spending. Removing tax loopholes and introducing a ‘Robin Hood tax’ would be popular with the majority.
This approach requires that the Liberal Democrats in Government admit their mistakes, not necessarily in supporting these policies but in not addressing the problems which they have created. I can see no reason why Liberal Democrats could not publicly develop a follow-on set of policies, whilst at the same time remaining committed members of the Coalition, supporting only those policies which contribute to a ‘Stronger Economy AND a Fairer Society’
* David Pollard is a member of the Liberal Democrats from Oban who stood in the Oban South council by-election in 2014
