Nick Clegg may see his tax announcement today as the first major step in modernising the Liberal Democrats, a key stage in his stated goal of doubling the number of Lib Dem MPs. He has certainly chosen a prize ‘sacred cow’ to slay. When the political history is written, will it be his Clause 4 moment or his P45 moment? (Presuming of course, the Lib Dems get a mention!)
I suspect it is the latter – not now, but in the long term, and not just for Nick Clegg, but possibly for his party too. It is however a gift for the Tories.
First, it narrows the political spectrum, allowing us to consolidate our support. It means the only opposition to the current government is coming from an economically more liberal direction – so the electorate have a more limited choice if they want to reject the government. And within that more limited offering, when faced with a choice between a party that has just performed a total volte face, and is now promising £20bn spending cuts, to pay for a raft of headline grabbing tax cuts; or a party with a broad-based agenda, that has consistently said it aims to lower taxation but never at the expense of economic stability, I suspect the credible choice becomes all the more obvious.
Second, such a dramatic change of direction from the Lib Dems allows the Conservatives to help people make that choice. We can present what some may call incredibly bold, simply as incredible – the kind of policy that could only be proposed by a party guaranteed never to have to implement it. George Osbourne did this very well on Newsnight a few days ago. In an attempt to grab the voters attention the Lib Dems may have made themselves look even less relevant in the real political debate of today. Perhaps we should be sympathetic, having pursued such a strategy ourselves in 01 and 05…
…which brings me on to my third and most important point: The rashness with which the Lib Dems have offered £20bn of tax and spending cuts highlights the maturity of Cameron’s approach, and how far we have come since we offered those cuts in the previous 2 elections. It used to be that voters had a two-way choice – a vote to deal with social problems by pumping in more government spending, or a vote to fix a faltering economy, by cutting off the supply of money to an inefficient bureaucracy. Both have been tried; both have been found wanting, and now that is the choice between the Labour Party and the Lib Dems. What the Conservatives offer is new and distinct – an approach that says we can sustainably reduce state spending, lower taxes, and revive our economy – not by simply cutting off the supply of money to the state, but by stemming the demand for money from the state. We do that by turning round social breakdown, and saving the costs of social failure. We also do it by making each pound of public money work harder, by putting spending power in the hands of those who know where the money is needed and how to use it. This is an holisitc approach to our social and economic problems, and a compelling agenda for government – it seems all the more so in contrast to a wave of speculative spending cuts that pay for some attention-seeking tax cuts offered by Nick Clegg
Some in our party may think the Lib Dems have stolen our thunder – I believe they have given us the chance of a landsilde.
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The Lib Dems’ tax proposals are predictably a fraud….Clegg is proposing a range of vague tax rises to fund them.