Nick Clegg: Tories Trying to Americanise UK Politics to One Party State

Nick Clegg was leader of the Liberal Democrats who were in coalition with the right-wing Conservative government in the last Parliament, and was our Deputy Prime Minister. The Lib Dems got stung this last election to leave a straight Tory majority. Now Clegg is spilling the beans in the Independent and letting us know exactly what machinations are going on behind Tory closed doors. It's not good reading, but it is wholly fascinating.

As the Independent reports:

Nick Clegg has accused the Conservatives of “Americanising” British politics by “rigging the rules” against their opponents in the hope of creating a “one-party state.”

In his first newspaper interview since last May’s general election, the former Deputy Prime Minister condemned David Cameron for using “One Nation rhetoric” to mask his Government’s decision to abandon the Coalition’s progressive policies.

Mr Clegg told The Independent that the Tories had departed dramatically from the tradition that the “rules of the game” in British politics were agreed on a cross-party basis.

He cited their “petty, spiteful” moves to cripple Labour’s funding by changing the way trade unionists pay the political levy and cutting state funding for opposition parties.

He said: “If you look at the way the Conservatives seek to hobble and neuter Westminster, the bullying swagger with which they treat the BBC, the general air of hubris, there is a feeling that politics is being reduced to the whims and mood swings of one political party. That is not healthy.

“A combination of US-style game playing by the Conservatives and Labour’s self-indulgence is conspiring to leave millions of British voters completely voiceless.”

Clegg goes on to compare the Chancellor George Osborne to Lyndon Johnson with his bullying tactics, saying he is “very clever, very skilled” and took “a little too much pleasure at the misfortunes of others” when “twisting the knife”.

[caption id="attachment_7361" align="aligncenter" width="550"] By Adrian Pingstone (talk · contribs) (Self-photographed) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons[/caption]

There is indeed an insidious move towards a one party politics of the United States. Well, they are a two party state, which is the narrowest democracy you can get. At least in Britain we are seeing a pluralisation of the political system. However, at the same time that more parties are hitting the scene, the Tories are doing everything they can to hamstring their opponents in back door manners. For example, they are trying to change voting boundaries to make things more equal across the UK. If one is to look cynically at this, the boundary changes will hit Labour the hardest and profit the Tories hugely.

A political and electoral analyst has projected that Labour will lose 24 seats, while the Conservatives will lose just 14, through changes to constituency boundaries set to be announced in September.

In analysis published in the Times, Lewis Baston made predictions as to how the new boundary map, which reduces the number of constituencies from 650 to 600, would appear, using newly released data from the Office for National Statistics.

England is set to lose 32 seats in total, Wales is set to lose 11 and Scotland is set to lose 6, resulting in a new Conservative majority of 33 seats (up from 17). Source

To make matters worse, they changed the way voters become registered (hallmarks of the Republicans' tactics here) and this has hit students and those in low socio-economic standing the most. Which is to say, not Tory voters.

In 2015 there were 44,722,000 registered to vote down from 45,325,100 the previous year.

The Office for National Statistics has shown that 603,000 less people are now able to vote in elections. This drastic reduction has led to claims that the Conservative party is trying to “rig the system.”

The 1.3 per cent fall has come after a change in the way voters put themselves on the electoral register. Supporters of the shake-up have argued that switching to individual voter registration would make it less vulnerable to fraud.

However, it has been claimed that the new system was rushed in to deny people a chance to vote and is another example of the Tories attacking UK democracy.

Under the new registration regime, people have to individually register themselves using their National Insurance number.

Before the changes took place, the head of a household, university administrators or care home managers could register everyone under living under one roof.

It is feared places with large student populations or with a large number of people in rented accommodation would be hit hardest.

Katie Ghose from the Electoral Reform Society chief executive said: “The constituencies which saw the biggest drop are largely student seats and deprived areas – groups which are already under-represented.” Source

As Clegg says in the Independent: “In one-party politics without any meaningful opposition, people can fool themselves that if they have said something, it must be true. They distort the English language and talk about social mobility when doing precisely the opposite… They believe their own hype.” 

So this is how it works:

• Tories or the Right control 9 papers to the Left's 2
• Boundary changes will mean more Tory seats and less Labour
• Voter registration means less students and deprived people voting
• Tries steal key ideas in show of appeasing different social groups
• Scotland splits Labour opposition votes
• Tories will be in power for forseeable future

As Clegg in the Independent continued, showing the cynical approach of the Tories:

Mr Clegg lifted the lid on two revealing battles fought behind closed doors at the top of the Coalition. Before its final Budget, he proposed an expansion of childcare provision for two-year-olds from poor families, widely seen as the best way of boosting life chances. But Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne rejected the idea, admitting that “all we want to do is to shoot Labour’s fox” by offering 30 hours of free childcare for older children to trump Labour’s 25-hour pledge. 

Similarly, when the Lib Dems pushed repeatedly in the last parliament for money to build social housing, the Prime Minister and Chancellor rebuffed them with the stark message: “All it does is produce more Labour voters.”

Now this might be seen as common political practice, but it has been glaringly obvious that all the Tories' social initiatives haven't been because they believe them, but because it is has taken the wind from opposition sails.

I am truly depressed about the state of affairs in British politics. I really am.