Why did Nick Clegg change his mind on the snooping bill? Because he
can’t afford to back something that his party rejects — like the NHS Bill. Over the next few weeks, we will see Clegg impaled on the horns of yet another policy dillema as the government
decides what to put in the surveillance bill. The president of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron, has laid out his position in the Times (£) this morning:
If the Lib Dems were a normal functioning party, it wouldn’t matter so much what Farron is ‘prepared to recognise’ but as things stand, Clegg’s main job is to hold together the coalition in his own party. And this is another a clear warning to Clegg: the Lib Dem grassroots may not take this coalition sacrifice so smoothy.‘I am prepared to recognise that there is obviously a need in modern society with new technology to have a look at what needs to be given to the security services but only if it is absolutely clear there is universal access…but we are prepared to kill them, be absolutely clear about that, if it comes down to it.’
While AV and the upcoming House of Lords reform dispute produced a split down party lines, the surveillance bill will create a rather more interesting divide. Lib Dem technopoliticans (like Julian Huppert) will bizarrely find themselves ganging up with small-state Conservatives (lead by David Davis no doubt) to rally against this bill. There’s little doubt the extended powers will pass in one form or another, but along the way, the question of what quantifiable difference the Lib Dems are making in government will be asked yet again. And the day draws nearer when Nick Clegg will have to answer that very question.
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