Gordon Brown ‘to give cabinet jobs to Lib-Dems’
Posted on Wednesday 20 June, 2007
Filed Under New Labour
Gordon Brown is due to name his cabinet a week today. And it is looking increasingly possible that when the announcement comes, Britain will have a de facto Lib-Lab coalition government for the first time in three decades.
Late last month I commented on an article by Sky political editor Adam Boulton in the New Statesman, which hinted that Brown was thinking along these lines.
Turns out the guy was onto something. Today the Guardian website reports:
Gordon Brown and Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, have held private discussions in recent days about a plan for one or two senior Lib Dems to join Mr Brown’s first cabinet, the Guardian has been told by a well-placed source …
If Mr Brown was to go ahead with such an audacious plan the Lib Dem candidates might include Nick Clegg, the shadow home affairs spokesman, or Vince Cable, the shadow Treasury spokesman.
Newspaper columnists and bloggers of the political persuasion that never quite got over the tragic demise of the SDP will doubtless try to dress this up as a ‘progressive coalition’, maintaining that the Lib-Dems are in some sense part of the extended centre-left family who should be welcomed aboard.
In terms of the Liberal Democrats on the ground, that point is at best debatable. But both Clegg and Cable are de facto Thatcherite neoliberals, hailing from the Lib-Dems’ hard rightist and anti-union Orange Book faction.
Understand that this is not a move forced on Brown in the name of hanging on to office, as was the case with Callaghan in the late 1970s. It is a willful act expressly designed to isolate the Labour left and further insulate New Labour from any potential trade union pressure.
Its net effect will be to shift the political centre of gravity in this country further to the right. And the socialist left remains too weak and divided to do a damn thing about it.
UPDATE: Campbell has rejected the proposal and told his MPs and peers – not least Lord Ashdown – to turn down any job offers.
Nevertheless, recall David Cameron’s recent attempt to draft Greg Dyke, not a member of any political party, into standing as a joint Tory/Lib-Dem candidate for London mayor.
The rigid party system is breaking down before our eyes. Good thing? Bad thing? Or just very postmodern? Comments, please.
<<Go back
Comments
17 Responses to “Gordon Brown ‘to give cabinet jobs to Lib-Dems’”
-
- Yemen: an unfinished revolution
- Comment Is Free: An honours system for those who fight to make Britain a better place
- Democracy crushed; elected President arrested; World wrings its hands
- Fabians change policy on unpaid internships
- Kamal al-Fayoumi arrested as Egyptian regime retaliates to strikes
-
-
Meta
-
Given the ostensibly solid claim that Brown (along with Prescott) threatened to resign when Blair tried this in 1998, I find it very hard to believe. And it seems remarkable that, having won the number of nominations he did in the PLP, Brown thinks he’ll need Lib Dem support to get his policy agenda through Parliament. Just what the hell can he be planning?
Gregg,
planning ahead – next parliament is a racing certainty to be hung (my bet, Tories Most votes, Labour most seats – constitutional bedlam time) maybe he’s thinking it’s better to begin the relationship from a position of strength?
Dave: both Clegg and Cable are de facto Thatcherite neoliberals, hailing from the Lib-Dems’ hard rightist and anti-union Orange Book faction.
So they are to the left of Blair and Brown then.
“Understand that this is not a move forced on Brown in the name of hanging on to office, as was the case with Callaghan in the late 1970s. It is a willful act expressly designed to isolate the Labour left and further insulate New Labour from any potential trade union pressure.
“Its net effect will be to shift the political centre of gravity in this country further to the right. And the socialist left remains too weak and divided to do a damn thing about it.”
That doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense. If the Labour left are weak and divided why would it be necessary to isolate them? it seems to me that the reason is probably the threat from the resurgent tory party under the leadership of Cameron.
I heard a little while ago that Paddy Ashdown might be brought into the cabinet as minister for Iraq or might be some sort of envoy with responsibility for Iraq. How much truth there is in that, I don’t know, but it’s possible that this is Chinese whispering at work.
xD.
I do remember talking to John Kampfner about this in 2004 and him saying that Brown referred to a progressive coalition as code for a Labour-Lib Dem coalition at the next parliament.
I think the Left can look at it in two ways a shift to the right or what the Lib Dems will get out of it. If the second will we get a PR system for elections at all levels?
If there is a 50-50 chance of that then I believe we might want to look long term and see how a party to the Left of Labour based on a broad coalition can come together and form a part based on democratic socialist values and principles and be linked to the union movement.
A bit optimistic, but I hope the electoral system is going to change.
Seeing as we’re in favour of progressive taxation, PR, and education funded from general revenues, and opposed to Shitty Academies, tuition fees, nuclear power, Trident replacement, and ID cards, in what way are we a bunch of hard-right Thatcherite neolibs?
Inquiring minds want to know!
Alex – I suggest you direct your mind to inquire around the Orange Book.
As we both know, there is a section of the LibDem in Parliament that could usefully be described as social democrats; there is also a classical liberal section. Given that the Orange Book advocated free market solutions to health, pensions, environment, globalisation, social and agricultural policy, local government, the European Union and prisons and that its authors include Vincent Cable (Shadow Chancellor), Nick Clegg (Shadow Home), Edward Davey (Chief of Staff), Chris Huhne (Shadow DEFRA secy), Susan Kramer (Shadow DTI secy), Mark Oaten and Steve Webb (Chair of the Manifesto Team), I’m not convinced as yet that I’d be happy with a coalition. Indeed, one could say it would be one set of Blairites having a coalition with another set of Blairites to minimise the need for the first set of Blairites to lean on the left of the Labour party in what might be a tight Parliament.
As I have said before, as a deep triballist I hate the Lib dems. As a rationalist I find it difficult to get over-excited by this.
In any case, Ming has ruled it out and so I don’t see it happening.
On the left/right thing – it’s a question of definition: personally I’d regard taking money off working class people to subsidise middle class students as pretty right wing, but I know others have a different view.
But for me the religion of socialism is the language of priorities and getting middle class students out of tuition fees, retired wealthy homeowners out of paying for social care or non-domiciled homeowners out of the council tax are not priorities.
On the other hand Paddy Ashdown hit the nail on the head over Bosnia…
Another wizard wheeze by Gordon. He really knows how to cheer the hearts of Party mmebers doesn’t he! Even the Blairites are aghast at this one.Unnecessary, unwanted, unbelieavable disdain for the grassroots and of course contempt for the Left. Well, kind of numbed to it now. We just have to come out fighting.
Newsnight says Brown is going to appoint “talented” non-Labour people to the House of Lords and then make them junior ministers.
Totally unacceptable.
I’ve suggested a course of action for the left on my blog.
So, the story appears to be: Brown approached Campbell, asked for permission to appoint Lib Dems, and was refused. Before even becoming leader, Brown has managed to make it look like Labour doesn’t have enough “talent” to fill a government; made himself look weak and craven and Campbell look strong and principled; indicated to people that if they want to influence the policies of the next government they may as well join the Lib Dems as much as Labour; and both fuelled and shown he agrees with the Tory line, that Labour needs to once again prove right-wing credentials. Fucking marvellous.
Latest apparently Ashdown offered a cabinet position. Since in his last job he was effectively sacked for acting like viceroy of Kosovo, something of a worrying development. Like others I fear a coalition with LibDems would bring in those trying to put the neo into liberal and not the pro-civil liberties and other progressive wing.
More widely, there’s a paper coming out soon in American Journal of Political Science (by Soskice & Iversen) that apparently shows since universal suffrage was introduced for most of the time in PR systems the govts have had at least some left element; with first past the post systems by contrast for most years the right has been in power. I’ve always been agnostic about electoral systems and irritated by those who insist any particular system necessarily best reflects the popular will – but on the face of it this is striking evidence that there are at least strong tactical reasons for supporting PR.
Paddy Ashdown Northern ireland Secretary…… you couldn’t make it up. And all I can say to all of those people who have been berating me for not being nice about Brown is….Ha bloody Ha.
Not a breakdown of the party system, but such a convergence (and also concentration of executive power and patronage, plus a broken electoral system that means it’s easier to get power by getting favours).
Lord Ashdown as dictator in northern Ireland. Sheesh.
I’ve blogged on the day I met Paddy Ashdown if anyone is interested.
To borrow from Tony Gramsci, it looks likes a case of UK-style “Trasformismo”.