Political

Another day, another plan for a cross-party progressive alliance

Following the news about Paddy Ashdown, this time it is Vince Cable:

Evening sunshine warmed the grand interior of Westminster’s Emmanuel Jall on Tuesday night, where over a thousand people had gathered to discuss the need for “Post-Brexit Alliance Building”…

According to the assembled politicians – Shadow Defence Secretary Clive Lewis, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, the SNP’s Tommy Sheppard, and the Liberal Democrats’s Vince Cable – there is now an urgent need to reach out to those who feel politics has failed them. And who may have voted Leave as a result.

Vince has been a mini-production line of articles about cross-party cooperation recently but he was also ahead of the wave, as I reported on back in January:

The Liberal Democrats and Labour MPs opposed to Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership will have to “work together” to create an “effective opposition” to the Government, Sir Vince Cable has said.

As a former Labour councillor turned twice defeated SDP Parliamentary candidate, Vince Cable knows only too well both the risks and potential benefits of cross-party arrangements.

What none of us know, however, is what politics will look like in 6 months, let alone a mere year. Cross-party arrangements can come in many forms, and they have even sometimes – witness the Cook-Maclennan talks – delivered huge benefits for Liberal Democracy. Which makes exploring possible options, cautiously, a very sensible move.

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