A note against despair

[pseudomonas]

The Conservative party have some nasty policies, and have made some nasty promises, and a lot of changes could happen in the next parliament that are pretty grim — and certainly there are a lot of positive changes that are much needed and will not happen.

But we should remember that they have a majority (even before a single by-election) that makes Major's in 1992 look generous¹. And this is a party that still contains David Davis, Ken Clarke, Sarah Wollaston, Nadine Dorries, Peter Bone — all flavours of awkward squad, left and right (relatively speaking, anyway), authoritarian and libertarian, europhile and europhobe. A lot of the policies are going to end up watered down, or defeated, or quietly swept into a disused filing-cabinet. Putting the right pressure² on the right MPs to convince them might well help. Campaigning in whatever opposition party you're a member of³ to help the Conservatives see they can't count on their majority next time will certainly help. Joining organised pressure groups like the Open Rights Group, Shelter, and Liberty will certainly help.

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¹ There's a chance that on some issues the DUP / UUP / UKIP might come to their aid, yes. But all these parties are small, UKIP sees them as the enemy on a lot of things, and having to rely on the DUP may well require of them some unpalatable quid-pro-quos. There's also a chance that on some things - the Snooper's Charter, for instance, some Labour MPs will support them. This just means that there's a broader target that needs pressure (from within and without that party).

² I personally believe that the right pressure is often more "I'd be more likely to vote for you if you do X than if you do Y" rather than "OMG all Tories are evil scum" even if the latter fits the facts better. But y'know, maybe there's a good-cop-bad-cop routine in there or something.

³ As I've said in a previous post, I'm in the Lib Dems and I think you should consider joining and making the party better and stronger — but if you're better suited to another party, please help make that party better and more effective instead.


ETA: and there's always the House of Lords there as well…

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Rumours were this time that the DUP had named a large sum of money as their price for coalition with the Tories

I think that was a joke. Well, half a joke: clearly no politician is going to turn down a large barrel of pork for their constituents, so if Cameron were to offer an extra billion for the DHSS (or apparently the DHSSPS as it is now, presumably because they had some spare Scrabble tiles lying around) that would certainly predispose them to listen to what he had to say.

But policy-wise, there's not much between the DUP and the UUP these days. It's probably best to think of them as the Judean People's Front and the Popular People's Front of Jeudea of Unionism; though even then relations are thawing. They formed a stand-aside pact this election which netted them a seat each.

[(Anonymous)]

Ah, it was Little Ian came up with the billion pounds, in the Indy.

I wouldn't take anything he says too seriously. Certainly nobody else in the DUP does.

[(Anonymous)]

Meant to link to the interview in the Indy (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/dup-names-its-price-for-electoral-deal-with-tories-or-labour-1bn-for-northern-ireland-10128931.html).

[pseudomonas]

Thank you!
(that link made clickable)