Hard to say I’m sorry

I held my nose and voted Lib Dem last week in the EU elections. Given where Labour has gone under the inept ‘leadership’ of Jeremy Corbyn, it was not a tough choice. However, the difficult bit was to vote for a political party which so damaged our country by propping up David Cameron’s austerity heavy government from 2010 to 2015.

In the days preceding polling day, those knights of the realm, ‘Sir’ Danny Alexander and ‘Sir’ Nick Clegg were schmoozing with the architect of austerity, one George Osborne, speaking of their friendship. And ‘Sir’ Vince Cable was defending the coalition saying how things would have been even worse without them in government. Friends had suggested I vote Green and in retrospect perhaps I should have done. I can’t honestly say I will vote Lib Dem again without some major changes in their attitude, as much as anything else.

I collared the local Lib Dem canvasser as she knocked on the doors along our road and told her where my vote was going. She was pleased but I said there was a caveat. I have felt that the Lib Dems should at the very least acknowledge their role at the heart of such a hideous government that inflicted austerity on the most vulnerable, made vicious cuts to public services including schools, the NHS and the police. And they had gone back on their promise to end student tuition fees, agreeing once they accepted jobs in a Tory government to triple them.

If Cable keeps banging on about how much good they did, their brand remains tainted. Because making things less shit – and only marginally less shit – still meant things were shit. Some of the things the coalition did were simply cruel, such as the attacks on the sick and disabled. Millions of us still remember this and as a direct consequence do not trust them. Something very simple would do, as long as they really believed it. Like this.

Dear Voter,

We realise that many of you were unhappy with the part we played in government with the Conservatives from 2010. We sincerely believed that difficult decisions needed to be made following the worldwide financial crash in 2008. We were certainly wrong blaming Labour for it. Some things we did like (name an example because I can’t think of one) were absolutely necessary but others, like the imposition of austerity, which affected poorer people far more than the better off, was a mistake. And we are sorry for that.

In any coalition, there are bound to be trade-offs and compromises. In hindsight, we gave away too much. Now that the Tory party has lurched off to the far right, there are no circumstances under which the Lib Dems could now enter into any form of coalition.

In short, we believed what we were doing was right. In truth, we got a number of things very wrong. And we have learned the lessons.

Today, we put forward a new, radical agenda that will seek to unite the country around modern, progressive and realistic policies that will always be grounded in fairness and equality.

Sincerely,

The Libs Dems

That would be good for starters, wouldn’t it?