For the United Kingdom to handle coalition politics is something akin to an American baseball player wielding a cricket bat; it takes some time getting used to, as the last time Britain was governed by coalition occurred in World War II.
Coalition shenanigans that in continental Europe or in Israel would be taken quite cynically have kicked up a minor firestorm in the island kingdom. This was the result of a successful sting operation carried out by the Daily Telegraph. The news reporters, equipped with hidden recording devices, posed as the constituents of Liberal Democrat Members of Parliament including some ministers and elicited unfavorable comments about their Conservative coalition partners. The Telegraph itself was criticized for intruding on the relationship between MPs and their constituents.
The person most severely compromised by the remarks was business secretary Vincent Cable, previously considered a heavyweight. "Cable was quoted as having "declared war" on media mogul Rupert Murdoch, a statement that shed light on his previous decision to block a Murdoch takeover of a media company. For that remark Cable was stripped of his powers to decide on competition policy. Other ministers criticized the government's social policies, including the college tuition hike that resulted in massive demonstrations in London.
A marriage of necessity
The coalition between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives was not love at first sight, but was prompted by the realization that a) the voters had rejected the ruling Labour Party and b) political uncertainty would further aggravate the parlous state of the British economy. A government with a solid parliamentary majority was needed to extricate Britain from the economic crisis.
It is obvious that the two leaders who arranged this marriage - David Cameron and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg - have invested their political reputations on it, have paid the price to be paid and are now hoping to reap the benefits. To a lesser extent this holds true for those occupying senior cabinet posts.
It is equally natural that when confronted with loyalists from their party who chafe at the costs of the coalition, there will be attempts to resort to positive and negative salesmanship. Positive salesmanship cites the successes that the party has achieved in the coalition; negative salesmanship recounts the disasters that were avoided due to the restraining influence exercised by the party. For example, Liberal Democrats take credit for moderating the Conservative's anti-European Union bias and as a result Britain's European partners find working with the government a pleasant surprise.
It is just as obvious that members of the coalition parties who found themselves excluded from the agreement or from the ministerial spoils will take a more jaundiced view and will attempt to portray it as a ghastly mistake. They receive further ammunition when the coalition partner touts his success at their party's expense. When the Liberal Democrats crow over the government's more Europhile tendency, the Euroskeptic Conservative rank and file cry betrayal.
These natural tendencies are seasoned by two other factors. The first factor is polling data indicating that voter support for the Liberal Democrats has hemorrhaged, with most of the defectors moving to Labour. Opponents of the coalition within the Liberal Democrats say I told you so. Supporters of the coalition agreement argue that we have paid the price, we may as well stick around to enjoy the benefits when the economy rebounds.
By Elections
A more severe problem is that of the by elections. In most cases where coalition governments are the rule, elections are run via the party list system. If a member of the Dutch or the Israeli parliament passes away or decides to resign, the next person on his party's list succeeds him with no fuss or bother. In the British single member district system this results in a special by election held only in that particular constituency.
Such a by election is slated for next month in Oldham. In the last election, Labour Party candidate and former minister Phil Woolas beat his Liberal Democratic opponent by 103 votes. Current polling shows the Liberals now running third behind Labour and the Conservatives. The British press has carried stories that David Cameron is neutering the Conservative campaign so that the Liberal Democrat candidate can avoid a humiliation. Some people around David Cameron have gone as far as to announce that this could morph into an overall strategy and that the coalition would field joint candidates in the next general election scheduled for 2015. The idea has secured the blessing of Sir John Major, the last Conservative Prime Minister before Cameron.