Friday, 25 January 2013

'England does not love coalitions.'

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The New Statesman says Mrs. Merkel told Mr. Cameron before the 2010 general election that in coalitions: 


"The little party always gets smashed!"

It certainly looks like it will be so in England this time, but it was the majority party in our last two coalitions that got smashed - the Liberals in 1918 and the Conservatives in 1945. The Liberals lost in 1918 because David Lloyd George, the Liberal Prime Minister, split his party and the Conservatives lost in 1945 because the Conservative Prime Minister Churchill was seen as a non-party figure. The Conservatives were blamed in 1945 for leading us into a war which they could have prevented. As Harold Macmillan put it:


“It was not Churchill that lost the 1945 election it was the ghost of Neville Chamberlain.” 

The coalition before that, between the Conservatives and the Liberal Unionists, led to the two parties morphing into one. The Liberal Unionist Joseph Chamberlain's two sons, Austen and Neville, both went on to lead the Conservative party. The pact - it was not a coalition - between the Liberals and the Home Rule Party led to the latter being smashed and Southern Ireland tragically leaving the UK - but the First World War and treason is to blame, rather than the pact, which might have kept Ireland British.  Treason was being plotted against the Government by the Conservative leaders until the moment England went to war with Germany and treason by the Irish Republican Brotherhood accomplished the Easter Rising.

I look forward this time to the Liberal Democrats being smashed. It couldn't happen to nicer people. Except possibly the Blairite wing of Labour. As Enoch Powell said,
"I despise the Labour Right as much as I despise the Liberals. More than that I cannot say." 
Remember the Liberal Democrats want legislation to prevent goldfish being given away as prizes at funfairs. They want to regulate the press. The few real liberals left in British politics sit on the right wing of the Conservative Party.

2 comments:

  1. I shan't waste precious minutes reading the New Statesman). But fear not - I can readily disappoint you by assuring you we are okay.

    Of the ten most recent local by-elections, where real people cast real votes for real candidates, we won six. Five of those were GAINS - and all from the Tories. They were also in very different parts of the country.

    In the latest national opinion poll we were at 15% (up 2%). UKIP were down, as were Labour. That would be respectable for us mid-Parliament were we in opposition.

    I wish I had a story you would find more encouraging.

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  2. UKIP climbs above Lib Dems in voter poll
    Last updated Mon 21 Jan 2013




    Nigel Farage's party has leapfrogged the Lib Dems in the latest poll

    The UK Independence Party is enjoying its "highest level of support" among voters, according to the latest survey, as the Prime Minister prepares to make a keynote speech on Britain's role in Europe.

    Polling company Ipsos Mori's January Political Monitor found 9% of those certain to vote in the General Election said they would put a cross next to Ukip, a two point rise since last month.

    It placed Nigel Farage's party ahead of the Liberal Democrats, who fell a point to 8%

    ReplyDelete