Lessons of Coalition (10): what do we Lib Dems need to learn?
In Liberal Democrat Voice
Originally published by East Midlands Liberal Democrats
LibDemVoice is running a daily feature, 'Lessons of Coalition', to assess the major do's and don'ts learned from our experience of the first 3 years in government. Reader contributions are welcome, either as comments or posts. The word limit is no more than 450 words, and please focus on just one lesson you think the party needs to learn. Simply email your submission to voice@libdemvoice.org and copy info@eastmidslibdems.org.uk.
Today Richard Morris shares his thoughts.
Make the red lines deeper and wider
Do you remember the 'What have the Romans ever done for us?' sketch from The Life of Brian? ' 'Nothing' was the implied answer (except of course for The Aquaduct, sanitation, the roads, irrigation, medicine, education, public baths, public order….).
And despite all that - they wanted the Romans out.
I thought of this when the party published its list of Liberal Democrat achievements in government. Just like the Romans, we've delivered a robust set of improvements to everyone's lives - a million more jobs, 2.7 million people out of income tax altogether, the Pupil Premium, Equal Marriage…
Yet, with our current polling on average still at 10%, most people seem reluctant to thank us. Indeed, quite the opposite.
That's because most folk, when thinking about how to vote, don't sit down and make an objective assessment of past performance, add in a thorough examination of manifesto promises, and vote accordingly. They vote with emotion, they vote by habit and they vote by gut instinct. They ask themselves, who do I trust, who seems reliable, who seems competent?
Whether we like it or not, we fail in many people's eyes on this score. Yes, we've done lots of great things in government. But that's not the prevailing narrative. It's that we're untrustworthy, that we betray our principles, that we were more interested in ministerial cars than political doctrine.
I'm not saying that's right or fair. But that is where we are. And because we were seen as having principles when we went into government (in contrast to either Labour or the Conservatives), we are punished far more severely by the voters when we are seen as betraying those principles.
So in contrast to Nick Thornsby's assertion (No.4 in this series) that we started the differentiation strategy too early, I would assert that we started it too late. That we had a coalition agreement, and we should have stuck firmly to it. That we should have vetoed any policy not in that document.
Checking back at the 'Record of Delivery' document, we'd still have been able to do most of it- the obvious exception being Equal Marriage (which makes the case for a more considered and slightly longer process putting the coalition agreement together next time, to avoid missing vital things like that out). And a lot of stuff that's caused all the reputational problems for the party would have been non starters anyway - the original NHS White paper, Secret Courts…..
So my advice for next time: whichever party we end up in coalition with, take longer putting the agreement together, and make the red lines deeper and wider. We don't just need to win people's heads. We need to win their hearts too.
Previously Published:
Mark Valladares: Better party communications responding to the realities of governing
Gareth Epps: Government: What's Occurrin?
Nick Thornsby: Making a success of coalition government as a concept
Caron Lindsay: That old "walk a mile in each others' shoes" thing works
Louise Shaw: One member, one vote for all party elections
Mark Pack: The invisible ministers should up their game, or be sacked
Robin McGhee: We should organise ministers better
Rob Parsons: Understand the mechanics of government
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