I'm Sorry. I'm So So Sorry

It’s not often a politician actually says sorry. It’s even rarer that they do it off their own bat, without being advised to do it by their cabal of advisors. But last week, Nick Clegg did just that, recording an abject apology for the Liberal Democrats’ U-turn on their tuition fees promise.

Of course this may have had something to do with both the upcoming Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton and the rumours of dissatisfaction among the Liberal Democrat  rank and file, who may be floating towards the more sceptical and outspoken Vince Cable. But whatever his reasons Clegg did seem genuinely sorry.

But Clegg should not believe that simply apologising and hoping that that will be an end of it will bring dissatisfied voters back into the fold. Whilst tuition fees is the thing everyone remembers - and if your central voter base is students raising tuition fees is really stupid, it is only a symptom of the larger problems facing the Liberal Democrats. There are still many outside the party (and inside it too I suspect) who believe that going into Coalition with the Conservatives was a bad idea, and a betrayal of party principles. These people seem to believe that the natural coalition partners for the Liberal Democrats would be Labour, as they share similar left wing principles.

But these people seem to have got confused about the position occupied by the Liberal Democrats on the political spectrum. The Liberal Democrats were formed out of a merger of the Liberals – who were always centre left - and the Social Democrats who were a Labour offshoot formed by dissatisfied members of Labour’s right wing. Thus while the Liberal Democrats could be said to be centre left – and thus a better fit for the Labour Party in a Coalition – they are actually more of a radical centrist party.

The other thing that people seem to have forgotten is that the current Liberal Democrat leadership is made up of so called “Orange Bookers,” those that contributed to The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism.  The “Orange Bookers,” while adhering to more traditional Liberal principles, are seen to be more on the right of the Liberal spectrum compared to those members of the Social Liberal forum who are seen to be on the left of the party.

It must also be taken into account that the Liberal Democrats really had no choice. Thrust into a kingmaker scenario in 2010, they had three options. Support neither party and watch a minority Conservative administration rise and fall probably within a year thus giving the country weak government at a time of serious economic crisis, support Labour, and end up in a Centre-Left coalition, which still wouldn’t have been able to make up the numbers and would have had to rely on the smaller Nationalist parties to get stuff through, or support the Conservatives as the party with the most seats, and try to temper their excesses.

I’m not attempting to apologise for the Liberal Democrats’ actions (or lack of action as the case may be) but I am wishing to point out that they were not in the easiest of positions, and their alliance with the Conservatives, is not as unlikely as it seems.

And those of you who haven’t seen the Nick Clegg Apology Remix on YouTube. Go look it up now.