There’s nothing wrong with Nick Clegg putting some distance between his party and the Conservatives. Today the Liberal Democrat leader is going to open up about the gory details of government, explaining where his party has held the Tories back, and heralding a new era where he and colleagues are honest about what they actually think of policies. On Friday, I argued that this sort of honesty about the workings of coalition government was a good thing. But there is one caveat to this.
Conservative MPs are pretty unhappy at present, and it’s not just that they are overtired before the Christmas break. Their unhappiness stems partly from the splits crisscrossing their party, but also from a disconnect with the Tory leadership and a yearning for certain policies which coalition seems to be blocking. Nick Clegg may have his own Tumblr dedicated to him looking sad, but that doesn’t mean he’s the only leader who should worry about the effects of coalition on those who sit on the backbenches, or those grassroots members who, rather than carrying a ministerial red box, are still carrying campaign leaflets and shoving them through letterboxes.
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