Brexit was an ideological coup for small-state fanatics – Nick Clegg
Nick Clegg has called on liberal and one-nation Conservatives, centrist Labour politicians and Liberal Democrats to join together to mount an ideological response to Theresa May’s government … arguing that Brexit was an “ideological coup” for small-state fanatics.
“I would welcome and embrace more thinking and writing and talking and speaking amongst liberal Conservatives, one-nation Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, centre-ground Labour folk who want to mount a proper ideological response to that.”…
“If it becomes obvious [at the] next election that the overwhelming task is to destroy the Conservative government – that is umbilically linked to hard Brexit,” he said, then it would be “flamingly obvious” to Labour in the south-west that the Lib Dems had the best chance of victory and to Lib Dems in the north that Labour did. [The Guardian]
As my survey of Liberal Democrat members found, there is widespread support in the party, at least in theory, for deals with other parties to promote a pro-European alternative:
What Nick Clegg wisely leaves open is the possibility of an approach to cross-party cooperation similar to that seen in the run-up to the 1997 general election – and which both helped secure Liberal Democrat seat gains at that general election and Liberal Democrat policies in the immediate few years after it. More on that in 6 ways to make cross-party political deals work.
The ward where I live (Alexandra, Haringey, London) is a three way marginal (Labour, Lib-Dems, Greens). We have one councillor remaining there out of the three we had until 2014. Two thirds of the voters are Remainers and three quarters of them left of centre (but the majority are not far left). Young Tories are mostly Remainers, the old mostly Brexiters. The local Labour activists are 50%+ Corbynites. This is not atypical for London. And London is where political battles of the next decade will be fought.
It is a no brainer to me that we should co-operate with the rest of the Remainers in every way practicable. As we leave the EU and enter uncharted waters, domestic politics will change. We have a historic opportunity to lead and be at the heart of a movement that may save the Union and repair our relationship with the rest of Europe.
Brexit can be defeated with an electoral pact of LibDems, moderate Labourites and Tories, Greens, Scots, Welsh, Irish candidates pooling votes to oust pro-Brexit candidates. But we need Corbyn removed to achieve this. The Corbynites and the SWP are anti EU because they see it as the embodiment of capitalism. #getcorbynout #stopbrexit
Cooperation seems a way forward in my eyes & you may well get some defecting to the Lib Dems!!!
It’s encouraging to see Nick correctly identifying the new right as ideologically small state and attacking that. The very people who fund this kind of politics want unrestricted ability for powerful corporations to oppress, disempower and impoverish.
It’s interesting that in words which look carefully chosen, he refers both to liberal Conservatives and one-nation Conservatives (they will often be the same people, but not necessarily as the old Conservatism of hierarchy, royalty, loyalty and benevolence was quite illiberal), but naming only one kind of potential Labour ally – centrists. There are not a few people in Labour who are quite left-wing and/but liberal on diversity, empowered communities and personal liberty. There are plenty of Blairite centrists who are illiberal centralisers happy to appeal to anti-diversity sentiments.