Order out of chaos
15th Apr 2011
"It has been another tough few days for the coalition government. Health Secretary Andrew Lansley continued to be a lightning rod for media ire, with his week dominated by a mauling at the normally caring hands of the Royal College of Nurses. Meanwhile the Coalition itself had an intriguing wobble on Thursday as Business Secretary Vince Cable publically criticised David Cameron’s call for “better immigration, not mass immigration” as "very unwise", before softening his position a few hours later.
Cable now seems to have a ‘licence to roam’ as an outlet for the opinions of increasingly disgruntled Liberal Democrat backbenchers. But the cynics among us might sense that with the local elections, and the AV referendum, now less than a month away, it is useful for both the Coalition partners to throw some red meat to their backbenchers and party activists. What better way than a minor spat about immigration to get the NHS off the front pages, and remind the party faithful on both sides of the Coalition what they believe in?
At least their positions are clear on voting reform, while the Labour Party is internally split between the official pro-AV party line, and hard-nosed party tribalists keen to see further tension applied to the fragile Liberal Democrat support. The local election results are obviously predicted to be extremely bad for the Liberal Democrats - potentially savaging their local activist support base.
With the Coalition now almost a year old, and facing trouble on a number of fronts, we are looking forward to a post-election policy refresh to appeal to whichever element of the Coalition feels most disgruntled. For public affairs professionals, the chaotic nature of coalition politics is becoming a natural state of being. At Westminster Advisers we are enjoying debating the various scenarios and policy implications. No one can argue that politics is uneventful these days."