Political parties: Lib Dems veer to the right

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, announced a major policy shift recently. In ‘Make it Happen’ he ditched many of the policies that put the party to the left of Labour. But can the ‘Cleggover’ pull it off?

See the Make it Happen document here

According to a Guardian editorial, this is a move to soak up potential Tory voters:

‘Politics is a binary game. Left or right? Red or blue? Government or opposition? Liberal Democrats hate such stereotyping, but they cannot avoid it, which is why Nick Clegg’s new emphasis on the small state and tax cuts, set out in a positioning paper last week, is being treated as a step to the right. In a sense, it is: a party that once (alone) among the big three called for tax rises and greater public spending now proposes to go into the next general election (again alone) perhaps calling for tax cuts and certainly for less spending. The progressive consensus of 1997 - which was always more of an anti-Conservative alliance than a meeting of ideological minds - may now be replaced by an anti-Labour alliance, in spirit if nothing more.’

Michael Browm, writing in the Independent sees inherent dangers in adopting a policy stance to the right of the Conservatives:

‘The Lib-Dems are in serious danger of facing the traditional two-party squeeze. They are a crucial vehicle for Labour in denying the Tories office. But they are an impediment to the Tories when the political pendulum swings in the opposite direction…The danger is that the more votes the Lib-Dems retain in what were previously Tory seats, the more chance Labour has of mitigating electoral defeat. Mr Cameron will be determined to prevent Mr Clegg from spoiling the (Tory) party.’

Additionally this is what Simon Hoggart had to say about the Lib-Dem rebranding launch by Clegg:

‘Nick Clegg launched an exciting new Lib Dem policy document yesterday. You could tell it was exciting because it’s printed on shiny paper with lots of pictures. The booklet is titled Make it Happen. This is part of the Obamafication of British politics, by which parties adopt bold, thrilling slogans that mean almost nothing at all. In Obama’s case these include “Yes we can!” and “Fired up! Ready to go!”

I occasionally point out that if the direct opposite of something is clearly ludicrous, there is little point saying it in the first place. “Oh, let it drop” would be a terrible name for an exciting policy paper. So would a chant of “We probably can’t!” or, “Pissed off! Packing it in!”’