As a Conservative activist, I have spent much of my time fighting the Liberal Democrats. A well known joke emphasises the dislike between the two parties; two councillors are standing at the top of a cliff, one Labour and one Liberal Democrat, which do you push first. The answer is the Labour councillor, business before pleasure.
In large parts of the country the fiercest fighting in election campaigns is between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. In 2004, as the electoral agent for Ipswich, I helped mastermind a successful campaign which allowed the Conservatives to remove Labour from power on Ipswich Borough Council for the first time since 1979 – the year I had been born. Yet just 3 months later I resigned my position with the Conservatives, objecting to their coalition with Ipswich Liberal Democrats to take over and lead the Borough Council.
As a Conservative who had spent many years in trench warfare against the local Liberal Democrats I could not see that such a coalition would be good for Ipswich. I am pleased to be able to say I was wrong. The Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition in the town has worked extremely well for the people of Ipswich. The current leadership of Ipswich Conservatives has been able to overcome many problems, not least the number of very left wing Liberal Democrat councillors who would perhaps more naturally align themselves with Labour.
It is with the same natural concern that many Conservatives will view the new coalition Government. It is against Conservative instincts to trust Liberal Democrat politicians. We recall only too easily the number of misrepresentations that appear on their Focus leaflets. Yet you cannot deny the feeling of hope that comes with the sight of a Conservative Prime Minister walking through the door of Number 10.
There will be many Conservatives who have doubts about the strength of this coalition, who doubt the sincerity of the Liberal Democrats, who abhor the concept of AV. Yet all those with doubts will be able to look back in four years time and see that it has worked, and worked well.
Whilst the national media focuses on the aspects of the Liberal Democrat manifesto that we are implementing in Government, it is vital that doubtful Tories remember that it is a Conservative Chancellor, a Conservative Home Secretary, a Conservative Foreign Secretary, and best of all, a Conservative Prime Minister.
Posted by Administrator on behalf of Paul Norton
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I don’t doubt the commitment of the senior players, although Charles Kennedy’s honesty is refreshing. What worries me is the wing in each party that is furthest away from the other. The left wing of the Lib Dems is largely composed of people who left Labour complaining that it had deserted socialism, and on the right wing of our party we have folk who would have joined UKIP had this not been election-time, their own complaint being that the Conservative Party was moving leftwards. Some day, I fear, there will be a humungous barney between members of the two.