Prime Minister Cameron Leads Lib-Con Coalition

For a few days after a somewhat indecisive election, Britain's political situation seemed stalled. Then yesterday, in a matter of a few hours, Gordon Brown resigned, David Cameron became Prime Minister, and the Liberal Democrats entered the Cabinet. For most of the day, though, the TV cameras were focused on the teal door of Number 70 Whitehall, the Cabinet Office where the Lib-Con coalition deal got hammered out. It is a generous arrangement for the LibDems, guarantees a stable Tory-led government, and is probably the best result the country could get given the arithmetic of the House of Commons.

To begin, one must review the numbers to see why a Lib-Lab coalition was impossible. The Conservatives have 306 seats, Labour has 258, and the LibDems 57. A majority in Commons is 326 of the 650 seats. Allowing for the fact that Sinn Fein (the Irish Republicans who have 5 seats) never take their seats because it would require an oath of loyalty to the Queen (although they accept their salaries and expenses), a majority is really 323. Nevertheless, a Lib-Lab deal only gets them to 315. Throw away 8 votes from Ulster Unionists who will back the Tories 99.9% of the time. Now, the Scottish National Party has 6 seats and the Welsh Plaid Cymru has 3. The Social Democratic and Labour Party (progressive Northern Irish) has 3, the Alliance Party (anti-sectarian in Northern Ireland) has 1, and the Green Party has 1. This "traffic light" coalition (reds, yellows and greens) musters a whopping 329 if everyone shows up and everyone votes for the coalition. That means that just 7 MPs who decide to withhold support could bring down the government. Labour just isn't that disciplined so any offer they made was irrelevant. They couldn't deliver.

What was astonishing was the generous nature of David Cameron's offer of a genuine coalition and how it improved with time. At first, he offered another all-party look at changing the voting system (a way to kill things off slowly). After Mr. Brown's sudden resignation and the offer of changes to the way MPs get elected, the Tories sweetened their offer to a referendum on using the alternative vote method (a system of preference voting, not proportional representation but an improvement). The full agreement fleshes out just how serious he is about a real partnership.

Moreover, he handed over 5 cabinet level jobs to the LibDems. Mr. Clegg gets the title of Deputy Prime Minister, a largely honorific title. Unlike the US vice president, Mr. Clegg doesn't become PM if Mr. Cameron were unable to do the job. However, he is also being given a brief to oversee political reform so it's not entirely a non-job.

Vince Cable will be the Business Secretary, although it was thought he would serve under Tory George Osborne at the Treasury. Dr. Cable was the highest profile LibDem politician under Mr. Clegg's debate performances and a couple of decades older than Mr. Clegg.

David Laws, who was LibDem spokesman for Education, will be Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the number two job there (but still a Cabinet level position). He will serve as Mr. Osborne's number two, responsible for telling government ministries that they can't have all the money they want at budget time.

Chris Huhne, a former rival of Mr. Clegg for the party's top job, will head up Energy and Climate Change. He had been environment spokesman for the party before taking on the home affairs brief. The job is very important to the LibDems, and Mr. Huhne is a heavy-hitter so this is a very hopeful situation.

Finally, David Alexander will be Scottish Secretary, a politically brilliant appointment by Mr. Cameron. Mr. Alexander was born in Edinburgh and represents a constituency in the Scottish Highlands. He was not only Mr. Clegg's Chief of Staff, but also drafted the latest party manifesto. Since the Tories have only 1 of Scotland's 59 seats, giving the post to the LibDems always made sense, and giving the job to Mr. Alexander makes even more sense.

It's a better deal for the LibDems than anyone imagined a couple of days ago. It's a better deal for the Tories as many expected a minority government of short duration. It's a better deal for Britain than the hung parliament seemed to offer last Friday. Now, comes the hard part, running a coalition when the unexpected crops up.

© Copyright 2010 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.

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