Coalition Government
All through the last 6 weeks of hustings and Gordon Brown speeches I can't remember any mention of inviting Lib Dems into the Cabinet and in effect forming a coalition government. I must have missed it somewhere along the line.
Let's be clear Gordon Brown has no mandate whatever for a coalition with the Liberals. Politiccal parties are elected on the basis of their manifestoes being placed before the electorate. If a leader of a party wishes to enter into a coalition with another political party then that proposition should be democratically determined in an election.
Gordon Brown may have mentioned wanting a Government of all the talents but at no stage in his speeches to meetings of party members during the leadership process has he ever suggested a coalition with the Liberals. He should have had the decency to consult his colleagues in the Parliamentary Labour Party and the party on such significant matters of principle. I believe that many would have been more circumspect in giving him their support if they knew these were his plans.
I have tabled today a Early Day Motion in Parliament as follows;
"That this House holds to the view that under the British system of open democracy, Governments are formed after the people have been given the oportunity to express their wishes through the ballot box at a general election; and therefore considers that no form of coalition government should be established without the people being given the right to have a say in a general election."
Attempts at behind the scenes secret deals and ignoring the party and the PLP does not bode well for the style of government we are to expect after Wednesday. This type of old politics will just alienate more of our supporters and put even more people off politics generally.
Let's be clear Gordon Brown has no mandate whatever for a coalition with the Liberals. Politiccal parties are elected on the basis of their manifestoes being placed before the electorate. If a leader of a party wishes to enter into a coalition with another political party then that proposition should be democratically determined in an election.
Gordon Brown may have mentioned wanting a Government of all the talents but at no stage in his speeches to meetings of party members during the leadership process has he ever suggested a coalition with the Liberals. He should have had the decency to consult his colleagues in the Parliamentary Labour Party and the party on such significant matters of principle. I believe that many would have been more circumspect in giving him their support if they knew these were his plans.
I have tabled today a Early Day Motion in Parliament as follows;
"That this House holds to the view that under the British system of open democracy, Governments are formed after the people have been given the oportunity to express their wishes through the ballot box at a general election; and therefore considers that no form of coalition government should be established without the people being given the right to have a say in a general election."
Attempts at behind the scenes secret deals and ignoring the party and the PLP does not bode well for the style of government we are to expect after Wednesday. This type of old politics will just alienate more of our supporters and put even more people off politics generally.
posted by John at 7:06 PM
10 Comments:
"Let's be clear Gordon Brown has no mandate whatever for a coalition with the Liberals."
Um. He's going to be leader. Besides, if Labour and the liberals form a majority in parliament... well...
"Politiccal parties are elected on the basis of their manifestoes being placed before the electorate."
I've heard that said elsewhere, but here is probably the last place I'd expect.
Wanting a coalition with the Liberals means he thinks without this he will be trashed at the next election.
He has also run out of good MPs to take on some of these roles, the yes-men are obviously not up to it.
A bad move by Brown and clearly it will alienate some within the party.
I take on board Johns comments about a mandate being sought through the manifesto but there are times and places for coalition governments.
There is a very good possibility we would have succumbed to the Nazi jackboot had not such a Government been formed in 1940.
There will always be a possibility the needs of the Country must come before a democratic choice and the above example shows that.
Todays shenanigans however was definably not one of those occasions.
I did a comment hours earlier but it wouldn't send; prob my computer. Fell asleep during "Itchy and Scratchy" again and now have to switch this off so I will be brief as too late to re-do it all now!
Brown is mad to try to get a Lib-Lab pact throough without consulting his party and we don;t want it anyway. It shows he has no confidnece in winning the next election and also it seems like he si governing by taking the things you discuss in Politics A level and applying them with no thought as to the current political situation he is applying them to - as hung Parliamnet has been looming according to political theorists since I first studied the issue about eighteen years ago but we did have a Labour landslide in between! As John said all along our asmjority was too big in 97 and the chickens are coming hime to roost now.
Galstonbury's Left Field will be interesting (if muddy as predicted!) for those who can make it; see Geoff Matin's website; I believe John McD and Tony Benn bith speaking plus Carter USM etc etc.... and there should be a protest at Browns coronation bunfight in Manchester as to the lack of demoicracy over the leadership and now the attempt to impose the Lib Dems..I know there is a "troops out" anti-war protest planne dfo it by Stop the War coalition outside it. I believe you can get a coach there from London for about ten pounds at times.
Question Time is in LOndon in two weeks time we should all email their website to try to get JOhn on.
Shenaingans is not the word John; more like a load of baloney!!
Hmmm, I actually think he should go further, and include all parties.
In the past when the country has faced a National Emergency it has formed a National govt to tackle the problem together and prevent it being used as a political football and cheap point scoring.
Climate change is the biggest emergency facing this planet, and needs drastic action taken quickly. But no govt has the balls to do it because the opposition will simply oppose unpopular measures to win the next election.
A 2-year national govt of all the parties could try and agree on a programme of measures that should be introduced and then once that's accomplished go to the polls as individual parties again, but without using climate change as a political ffotball - it's too big a problem for such cheap shots...
I know this will be unpopular with most activists, but I honestly think it's the only way to seriously tackle climate change.
The following resolution has already been tabled to my Branch:
"This Branch condemns the actions of Gordon Brown, (leader-elect of the Labour Party) who has compromised the position of and brought into disrepute the credibility of the Labour Party, by inviting members of the Liberal Democrat Party into the Labour Government.
This Branch has raised money to fight and has campaigned successfully against the Liberal Democrats. Electorally, the Liberal Democrats are our main opposition in this area.
This campaigning is undermined by the actions of our appointed leader, who has given tacit support to the Liberal Democrat Party.
We call upon the CLP to express this view forcefully to the NEC and demand that this policy is condemned as being against the interests of the Labour Party.
We further note that should an individual member of the Labour Party endorse or campaign in favour of a candidate from another Party they are considered to be in breach of the rules. We therefore call for Gordon Brown to publicly apologise for his actions, which clearly undermine the hard work of Party members across the UK
See my blog. I think you'll like it.
From "Maxton" by Gordon Brown -
"The second Labour Government had ended in disaster. Ramsay MacDonald was now leading a Conservative-dominated Coalition. The Parliamentary Labour Party, which had supported the rightward lurches of MacDonald until the day of his defection, was in disarray."
We are now getting a Leader defecting to the Liberals even before he is in post. But I recognise the description of the PLP.
Brown was on television today still saying that there would be non-Labour people in his government. Since they won't be Lib Dems, they must be Tories.
I understand party members being concerned about introducing Tories and liberal democrats into cabinet, but surely there have been people in the cabinet: John Hutton and his Welfare Reform Act, etc who are to the right of many Tories. What what we are increasingly getting is a US style system of parties that really only argue about the margins.
and of course, many of N/L policies:, NHS foundation hospitals, tuition fees, academies came from a Tory heritage, sadly, Keith Joseph woule have been proud
of NL.
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