News from the New Party

Liberal Democrats and the art of cabinet making

During the Blair years the botched cabinet reshuffle has become something of a tradition.  One might be forgiven for thinking that this is one tradition which is set to survive the transition to the Brown era.

Nevertheless, Gordon Brown's offer to appoint some Liberal Democrat peers to his first administration in junior posts, and his subsequent offer to Lord Ashdown of a cabinet position, is astute.  The fact that his overtures have been refused do not substantially harm him - Labour has no need of Liberal Democrat support at Westminster.  They do, however, embarrass the already beleaguered Liberal Democrats.  Brown's offer to Sir Menzies Campbell has signalled a clear declaration of intent to lead a new style of more open, inclusive government: a government of all the talents.  Whether or not this declaration is sincere now hardly matters, since the Lib Dems have turned him down.  At least he can say he has tried.

As for Lord Ashdown, it has to be said that his efforts in Bosnia over the past several years have earned him international acclaim and a status which no other Liberal Democrat politician currently enjoys.  He would be an asset to any government.  Nevertheless, an appointment to the post of Northern Ireland Secretary at this point would hardly be a fitting culmination to his career.  No doubt Lord Ashdown considers he has better things to do with his time than serve as a trophy in Gordon Brown's cabinet.

From the Liberal Democrats' point of view, although they may be right to characterise Brown's efforts as "mischief-making", in the words of Phil Willis MP, the dilemma in which the Lib Dems now find themselves has been thrown into sharp relief.  All talk of a prospective Conservative-Lib Dem coalition after the next election seems to have died.  Recent events in Scotland and Wales have seen the Lib Dems walk away from possible power-sharing deals.  Gordon Brown's offer has merely helped to cement the image of the Liberal Democrats as a party who are happy to carp from the sidelines but unwilling to get their hands dirty with the actual business of government. 

Of course this impression is not entirely fair - Lib Dems have served in Scottish and Welsh administrations in the past eight years - but nevertheless the polls speak for themselves: the Lib Dems are a party in steep decline, with the Conservatives making inroads into Liberal heartlands, and Labour enjoying something of a honeymoon period.  The recent Populus poll saw Lib Dem support sink to 14% - the same as the "Other Parties" combined.  Increasingly the Liberal Democrats are seen to be irrelevant - which no doubt is a factor in their reluctance to enter into government at the moment.  Lib Dem energies might most usefully be spent in finding an identity and policies which resonate more with the British people than the sub-socialist nonsense they have presented us with in the past few years.

Lord Ashdown may be right:

"You do not build partnership government by seeking to add the Liberal Democrats as a bungalow annexe to a Labour government." 

However, Liberal Democrats may yet have cause to reflect that life in a bungalow annexe might be more comfortable than being left out in the cold.