Liberal Democrats and Conservatives: A Love Story

Anybody else noticed how obsessed the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives are with each other, at the expense of attacking Labour? From the Clegg / Cameron debate through to donation rows and instant-a-fisking of policy proposals (and not-so-instant-a-fisking), the two parties (or rather, their activists, it has to be said) can't take their eyes off each other. If the political system was a playground, they'd be pulling each others hair and pushing them down by now, in a remarkable, but transparent, display of latent sexual tension. Labour would probably be the swotty kid who stayed in the classroom and got on with his work (receiving poor marks for it in the end of course).

And it isn't just on the internet that the parties have an abiding obsession with each other - I've heard LibDems in some local constituencies tell me about their "informal alliance" with Labour designed to keep the Tories out of power, whereby they agree not to stand in wards where the other party has a realistic chance of winning. Depriving people of a real choice (if their instinct is progressive / liberal), this is good politics maybe but bad democracy certainly.

The dangers of this obsession, for both parties, are obvious - Labour is, for the time being, the Government Party, and it is governments that lose elections, not oppositions that win them. Just because it's a cliche, it doesn't make it any less true. We need only look at 1997 and 1979 to confirm the validity of this adage. Labour obviously hasn't avoided criticism during its time in office, but think how much more effectively we could undermine them if, rather than allowing the opposition (and I mean both parties here) to be divided and ruled, we went on a joint attack against the government. It might be anathema to some grassroots, but there are real areas of policy where we can work together, most notably (as Guido has pointed out) civil liberties and we should seek to remind voters of how weak Labour are and how alternatives do exist. Both parties will then reap the rewards, perhaps not in equal measure, but that depends on how well they can lay down their vision for the country.