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The Fierce Urgency of Now
This hung Parliament has delivered the progressive majority in this union a once in a generation opportunity to hardwire fairness into our society. Fairness in creating an economy and tax-system that gives ordinary people a fair shake, fairness in the timing and manor of public spending/cuts, fairness in considering all aspects of our military for defense spending reviews, fairness in the way we approach immigration reforms and fairness in our approach to our relationship with the European Union. How is it in the "national interest" to not talk about these things?!
The Conservatives seem to assume they have a stranglehold on Government and can therefore veto negotiation on whatever issues they want. This is not in the national interest and the progressive anti-Conservative majority in the UK must not stand for it. We got 15+ million votes, the Conservatives only got 10.7m. That is not a mandate to Govern and if they want to fault that then it contradicts their staunch position of not offering any fundamental reforms to our political system.
The Conservatives must not be allowed to have a dirt off your shoulders attitude towards trying to grab power. I would hope that Mr. Clegg and his team of "kingmakers" recognize that it is in-fact the progressive parties who have the mandate to govern. He's made a nice effort to show the public that we offered the party with the largest share of the seats a chance to try and form a Government, but the differences are just too large and the media are already reporting Cameron has rejected any plans for a PR referendum.
Alex Salmond has provided Nick Clegg the opportunity to bring about real historic changes. He should agree to a deal with Labour, SNP and Plaid Cymru for electoral reform. Once such a deal starts to look a real possibility, it would not be hard to bring Caroline Lucas, the SDLP MPs and the Alliance MP into the fold. That's over 326 seats.
Such a deal would also enable a laser focus on our economic situation. Clegg could implement his all-party deficit reduction committee vision that he outlined in the debates, with Conservative involvement, giving any economic policy produced a strong mandate that the markets would respect.
Obviously there is the issue of Gordon Brown. Unfortunately as a result of the right-wing media narrative, most people see the general election results mostly as a rejection of the Labour Prime Minister. Perhaps Brown would be willing to step down if it meant the chance to see a progressive and fair legacy. Nick Clegg could take over as a care-taker style PM, overseeing the reform process and economic recovery. Once Labour finish a leadership election, a more comprehensive co-operation deal between Labour and the LibDems could be worked out, perhaps ensuring a full Parliament term of a coalition before the nation's first PR election.
Martin Luther King used to talk about "the fierce urgency of now". We cannot miss this opportunity to hardwire fairness into society. I appreciate Nick Clegg must be the most frustrated man in British politics right now, staring into the gaze of history and all that.. but I urge him to take the risk. Don't endorse the leader who can't deliver on reform promises even if he wanted too. Endorse a people's politics Nick!
