The Lib Dems and Proportional Representation

Watching Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne on Question Time, again doing the "we're not going to talk about hung parliaments, we'll try to maximize our vote" act, I started thinking about the Lib Dem's predicament.

They say that they are not interested in talking about hung parliaments because it is in their interest to maximize their vote. But it is a bit of double speak, they want to maximize their vote so that a hung parliament occurs and they become the power brokers, like the Earl of Warwick in the Wars of the Roses.

Their price for partnership in a coalition Government is proportional representation, obviously this ensures that the British Government will always be a coalition with the Lib Dems. They will be permanently power propping up either a Labour or Conservative administration. Both Labour and the Tories know this and so they are unlikely to be open to PR (for Westminster at any rate). It would seem extremely unfair to the electorate if the party which formed the Government were decided not by themselves but by a smaller band of Lib Dem MPs.

So would the Lib Dems agree to anything less than PR? I think so, because the opportunity to be in Government will be to hard to ignore. On the surface it looks like Nick Clegg would favour a Con/LibDem coalition and Chris Huhne a Lab/LibDem coalition, but I think that is too simplistic. It will come down to the state of the latest Government (would it be possible to prop up a discredited Government), what other policies the Lib Dems can trade and what cabinet posts can be filled.

Of course, if Proportional Representation were to be implemented in Westminster there could be a seismic shift in all the main political parties. They could all splinter, the free-market Lib Dems could join the libertarian Tories leaving the authoritarian Tories to their rump, the big Government Lib Dems could join the free-market New Labour centre-left, the Old Labour left could join the Socialist Alliance. All without fear that their voices would not be heard. Possible , but unlikely.

I'm sceptical though, I think it would be extremely difficult to get a sea-change in politics which comes along once a generation. The Thatcher revolution, which was needed to change the economy of this country, would be a dulled twinkle in her eye had she had to form a coalition with the then Liberals. We would most likely still be crippled by strikes and noted as the sick man of Europe.

Squiffy.