Originally published in a much shorter form in Palatinate Elections, June 2009, available here:
http://www.palatinate.org.uk/elections/the-coalition-new-politics-under-the-spotlight/
Unless you’ve been stuck at the bottom of a well for the past three months or so, you may have noticed that there’s been an election. With the arrival of an historic coalition between the Conservatives and Lib Dems in Downing Street, promises abounded of a break with the “old politics” of spin and sleaze, tarred by the cash for honours and expenses scandals, and the unrepresentative “boys’ club” Parliament has often appeared to be. Fresh thinking and integrity were to be the order of the day, especially after Nick Clegg sold the Lib Dems as the party for change after decades of squabbling between the two “old parties”.
Well, the dust has just about settled in Whitehall, and as the new administration takes over it’s time to find out just what they meant. Exactly how new is this politics?
Equality and diversity have been seen as crucial indicators. The 23 members of the Cabinet include 5 Lib Dems and 18 Tories. 14 are Oxbridge-educated, 4 women, and 10 under the age of 50, including the Prime Minister, Deputy PM and Chancellor. All are white with the exception of Baroness Warsi, co-chairman of the Tory party and first Muslim woman to hold a Cabinet post, while 2 ministers- Ken Clarke and William Hague- sat in previous Tory Cabinets.
Dr Lawrence Black, Senior Lecturer in History at Durham and an expert in contemporary politics and recent political history, puts it like this: “where are the senior women (Theresa May apart) and non-white ministers? Clegg is a millionaire. Cameron can trace his family tree to King William IV.” Pointing out the 65% turnout, Dr Black also said that “the Tories only polled about a million more votes than in 1997. I think the coalition government is more a manifestation of the problems politics faces than a solution or something new”.
The numbers don’t immediately scream representation. Gordon Brown usually had around 6 women in his Cabinet, with another 4 who attended when their responsibilities were on the agenda. Ethnic minorities were largely absent from the table; Warsi’s appointment is still a landmark in this light. There were also only eight Oxbridge graduates after Brown’s last reshuffle, and the number of privately educated ministers has increased overall since the election, though the former administration may not have been completely representative.
It looks as though the stereotype of the white, upper-middle class, middle-aged public schoolboy in Downing Street may not die out just yet, and this has led many to voice age-old concerns about the ability of the government to act in the interests of a varied population which they do not reflect (despite “Call Me Dave’s” best efforts). While it’s arguable that we don’t need the government to reflect the population- they are, after all, elected representatives who are meant to lead the country, not simply reflect it- many voters, in particular minorities, may have little faith in a Cabinet to which they cannot relate.
Still, the presence of Diane Abbott in the Labour leadership contest, the first black woman to stand, may even highlight the similarities between coalition ministers, and push the Opposition forward as the party of empowerment and diversity instead. Dr Black says, “I think David Miliband nominated Abbott partly to stamp out the charge and perception that Labour was not diverse - in fact its current percentage of women MPs is the highest ever”.
Another related concern regards Theresa May, the second female Home Secretary after Labour’s Jacqui Smith. Although she is also Minister for Women and Equality, her voting history includes moves against gay adoption rights, lowering the age of homosexual consent from 18 to 16, and other gay rights legislation. This has led to a (what else?) Facebook campaign demanding her resignation from the Equality brief, and pressure from progressive MPs and pressure groups may cause difficulties throughout this Parliament. Overall, the coalition’s promise of fair representation and equality does not appear to have been realised.
The idea of an era of honesty and integrity has also taken a battering with the swift resignation of David Laws, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, over around £40,000 of expenses claims for rent paid to the male partner with whom he lived. Laws claimed that his actions stemmed from the desire to keep his sexuality private, while the ambiguous wording of certain rules meant that he thought they did not apply to him. Either way, a resignation linked to expenses automatically associates the new administration with the scandals of the last Parliament; it appears that “old politics” keeps coming back to haunt them.
Laws could have actually claimed more had he been openly co-habiting with his partner. Expenses aside, the fact that he kept his sexuality secret has led some to suggest an inherent homophobia in the corridors of power, reflecting badly again on equality and diversity. Palatinate spoke to one Josephine Butler student who said “it seems like he thought it was something he had to hide, and if that’s because it would have damaged his political career, that’s shameful”.
However, there is one major respect in which this government constitutes a break with the past. By definition, a coalition involves the co-operation of more than one party, at odds with the adversarial culture of Parliament. Only the second such government since World War Two, the current regime has been mandated by voters with differing political views which must all be represented, meaning that compromise and a more consensual brand of politics are necessary.
Already we’ve seen the difference this can make- certain Lib Dem policies, such as increasing the income tax threshold to £10,000, are set to be implemented alongside Tory ones such as the cap on immigration from outside the EU, while several key policies seem to be mixtures of the two manifestos. The really new politics may be emerging with the policies, though it remains to be seen how this will affect public confidence. Given the claim of one second-year student, this could be a difficult task: “I have as much faith in this government as I do in Boris Johnson’s hairdresser”.
An interesting post Sarah as always.
ReplyDeleteOn the issue of equality and diversity within the cabinet i agree that over time, as more women and ethnic Members of Parliament get higher up the ranks of the two coalition parties then there shall be more women and ethnic minority members of the cabinet and ministers.
As i know you are a supporter of the Liberal Democrats i would like to highlight that for a party so apparently focused on equality and diversity there are, if memory serves no ethnic minority MP's, and additionally as a proportion of the party more of its MP's were privately educated and attended Oxbridge than the Labour party, which has taken criticism over the years for its 'large' number of privately educated Oxbridge/university educated MP's, if having attended a private or public school and attending Oxford or Cambridge is viewed to be a bad thing for politicians then the LibDems are hardly the best party are they.
On another issue that you touched on but in a different way, the Conservative party has the most out gay MP's than any party has, if the Tories are so homophobic and against equal rights then how could this be possible, it is possible because David Cameron's modernization of the Tory party is of taking it away from Social Conservatism, which opposes equal rights and focuses more on traditional values towards social liberalism, which encourages equal rights. It is Social Conservatism that has dumped the 'nasty party' label on the Tory party, preventing it from winning elections from 1997 onwards, yet i do accept that is not the only factor for Tory defeats in 2001 and 2005 but it is not my intention to explain why i think the tories lost and then did not regain power, thats for another time.
Just briefly mentioning Theresa May and her voting record previously on equality issues i think that it is fair to recognize that she has since said(on question time) that she feels that she was wrong on the way that she voted and has changed her mind on equality. As i noted before the direction of the Tory leadership has changed, and the party has moved towards social liberalism, judge Theresa May as she does her job, not her record as an opposition MP ten years ago, she has said she believes she was wrong then so i believe she deserves a chance now.
As for Coalition politics and policies i think that this is the biggest area in which there is/will be a 'New Politics', there are already reports of the internal workings of the coalition, and these appear to be positive. In contrast with the previous Labour Government, in which policy was decided by warring ministers trying to win a battle of supremacy, the new coalition has extensive consultation between the coalition partners on policy and major events such as the budget, with Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander having being involved and consulted in a major way compared to labour, where apparently the chief secretary to the treasury was not even told the contents of the budget. The closer scrutiny of policy to make it acceptable to both coalition partners will result in more thought through, hopefully 'better' policy.
ReplyDeleteOne final thought Sarah, as knowing you would place yourself on the left of the LibDems and are no-doubt unhappy of most if not nearly all the new governments policies just remember that this is not a LibDem majority government, the LibDems are part of a coalition in which the bulk of major Tory policies will be implemented rightly so as they are the major partner while policy areas that the libdems are strong in such as equality(raising income tax threshold), the environment(Chris Huhne in the cabinet) and political reform(Nick Cleggs responsibility in government) they shall have a say and influence in government, which must surely be better than no influence on the opposition benches.
Both for you and for LibDem supporters all over the country, if this Coalition government makes you so uneasy about coalitions then perhaps you should rethink your support for Proportional representation, as coalitions would be permanent and the libdems would always be in government, they will never get what they want as they will probably never be the majority party in a said coalition, and the idea that a coalition with Labour would give the libdems everything they want is also unravelling, as comments from senior labour figures both now and just after the election shows. A coalition does not result in a libdem majority government and so they will not get everything they want, with either Labour or the Tories.
I am willing to admit that over time the diversity may well increase within the government and Parliament as whole, and I am aware that the Lib Dems are hardly the most diverse of parties; however, this article was written soon after the new Cabinet was announced, and my point was that the makeup of the Cabinet was a marked contrast to their promises of a new type of government in which equality would be more evident. At first sight, little progress has been made, apart from having two parties of different colours around the table.
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of gay rights, I think I was right to point out that for all her public contrition, Theresa May is still a contentious figure as a result of her voting history. The public will have little faith in her suitability for the equality brief, since rightly or wrongly they are cynical enough to see her about-turn as necessary for her career. Given Chris Grayling's sidelining since his B&B comments, it would make sense for her to renounce it. Regardless of her current attitude, can the public have faith in a woman who has voted against the rights she must uphold?
The Tories do have a high number of openly gay MPs, yes, but to the public gaze they are not as obvious as one major figure like May- there's an incongruence between the two which damages and confuses the party's image. Regarding David Laws, again at first look it seems like he had very clear reasons for not telling Parliament that he was gay, though I am referring to speculation rather than fact and I think I make that fairly clear.
This article was really more about how the immediate image of the new government wasn't as "New" as they'd said, and they were going to have to prove themselves in time to convince a sceptical electorate. I am one of those sceptics, and have yet to be won over.
I should also clarify my thoughts on the coalition. I wanted and approve of coalition government: I stand by electoral reform as the way to make this country a proper democracy (although it should not be the alternative vote currently being mooted, but a more radical move to the Single Transferable Vote). I believe that the process of consultation and discussion is the best way to produce clear, thoughtful legislation, and although no-one really gets exactly what they wanted, the compromise tends to be a reasonable happy medium.
That said, this particular coalition is less to my taste. Just because I want parties to share power does not mean that I have to like them all, and my personal preference is most definitely not with Call Me Dave's crew. The Conservatives are the larger and dominant party, and so have a greater say in negotiations than the Lib Dems; this I accept. However, the point of co-operation is that every now and then you get something in return, and the Lib Dems are not getting much in return for their support. The natural outcome of this is that I am not happy with the current government- not because I dislike all coalitions, but because I dislike the policies of the party which is calling the shots in this one, and the compromises are not good enough. I accept that the Tories will get their own way quite a lot. That's their right. But I don't have to like them either.