We all need to distinguish between the current coalition government and the Liberal Democrats. Coalition policy is a compromise; the Lib Dems did not win the general election, so we cannot deliver all our manifesto commitments. Lib Dem policy is still determined by the membership at party conference, not by the coalition government. If we win at the next general election, we will implement Lib Dem policy. In the meantime, like it or not, we are the junior partners in this coalition, with 57 MPs to the Conservatives’ 306.
We approve of many of the coalition’s policies. Indeed many of the Coalition policies are our policies: taking the lowest earners out of income tax, raising pensions, deferring the replacement of Trident, supporting education through the pupil premium and increasing support for nursery schooling, amongst others.
There are other areas that we do not like, and we shall continue to speak out on those issues: student tuition fees, free schools and academies, the creeping privatisation of the NHS and cuts in housing benefit and support for house building.
Many of us do believe that our pledge on tuition fees was just that. We still stand by that, as do many of our MPs. Condemning our young people to these levels of debt is simply not acceptable. But there is a difficult balance to be struck. On the question of student tuition fees the coalition agreement allowed a specific opt-out for Liberal Democrat MPs. We need, however, to remember that If we pick and choose on other issues which coalition policies we will vote for in parliament, the Conservative backbenchers could follow suit, and the government would steadily fall apart. Our opportunity to get any Lib Dem policies put into action at all depends on the coalition holding together, and sometimes that will mean our MPs voting for things we don’t like. If you don’t like them either, elect more Lib Dems next time!