Getting tantalisingly close

After an energetic and quite breathtaking few hours, we now have the possibility of real progress towards electoral reform. This is a historic moment which the LibDems must not let slip from their grasp. Nick Clegg and his team have been masterful. They have been tight together as a team, and steadfast in working towards what they believe to be in the nation’s best interest. Don’t let a reform of the voting system be not to be thought to be in the national interest. It will be bumpy for most of the commentators in the short-term as they will have to unlearn the confrontational politics of the past and have to learn what consensus and compromise means. What a joy.

The LibDems don’t have that much to lose, whatever the commentators say! When you have little to nothing, what is there to lose! I’m afraid I’m an old enough Liberal supporter to remember parliaments with 5, 6 and 13 Liberal MPs. Those days will NEVER return under PR – so there’s so much less to lose if there was a temporary reversal in their fortunes. What they will have achieved will be a fundamental change in the way the UK is governed.

It doesn’t stop at PR. There’s the House of Lords. The LibDems can provide the backbone to a new government to finish the job that Tony Blair should have completed back in 1997.

Whatever the electoral outcome of any decision to go for PR (and I mean PR, not the Alternative Vote) this is the moment that they hopefully will grasp.

3 Replies to “Getting tantalisingly close”

  1. Although a bit exasperated by it all, I suddenly see possibilities. Trouble is, who will the Queen accept as new leader? Nick or unelected Labour? And then there’s the difference, SNP, PC, GREEN! :-). Still a long way to go. At least the stocks went up today :-/

    PR: predicting some brick walls over which system http://tinyurl.com/368b3hx. And cynicism.

  2. Indeed Tom, but something people forget is that we (the people) only elect the Parliament; it’s the Parliament that effectively anoints the Prime Minister. If you want a couple of unelected PMs … go for Alec Douglas-Hume and John Major. Then even further back when the Tories were in their element they even had Lords as PM. Hypocracy rules.

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