MESSAGE FROM ROS - THAT COALITION DILEMMA

11.12.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 4th Jun 2010

Ros with Paddy Ashdown who has expressed the need for robust defence of Lib Dem values in the coalition

Now that the dust has settled, I want to be able to open debate with all of our supporters about the coalition & its positive & negative impacts - because there are both !

The site will contain (see below) regular COALITIONWATCH updates.

I welcome responses from you about your feelings about what is happening.

I see my role within the party as challenging any decisions that run counter to our manifesto aims - but accepting that if we as a party believe in reform of the voting system we have to deal with the consequences of that reform : coalition government. In a time of economic recession it would have been simply irresponsible of us not to agree to work with either Labour or the Conservatives. Many of us would have preferred Labour.

Below is the text of the press release I gave following the announcement of coalition:

Anyone who knows me knows that I am NOT a Tory. But people do deserve an explanation of WHY we have gone into coalition.

Ros at a campaign rally with Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime-Minister, who sees the coalition as the greatest opportunity for political reform since the 1830s

The Liberal Democrats fought this election saying that we would work with whoever had the mandate from the British people & whoever would help us to deliver our manifesto promises in Government. In this coalition we have achieved the Pupil Premium, a commitment to our climate change targets, protecting those on low incomes from pay restraints,higher tax allowances for those on low incomes, long term increase of the tax threshold to £10,000, abandoning the increased threshold for inheritance tax, a per plane duty on air travel, linking non business capital gains to income tax, the manifesto guarantee on pensions earnings link, scrutinisation of the renewal of trident, anti avoidance measures for taxes, introduction of a banking levy & a commission to consider separation of retail & investment banks, a Freedom Bill, extension of the FOI, restoration of rights to protest, abolition of ID cards & the biometric data base AND delivery on electoral reform with a referendum on AV.

These are the policies my party fought on in the general election. The Labour party was too hampered by its tribalism to go into coalition to achieve the kind of progressive powersharing the left in this country so desperately needed and the figures would have made for very unstable government. Now the Liberal Democrats have the chance to ameliorate some of the more extreme elements in the Conservative manifesto. Balanced government.

One of the phrases I heard repeated again and again on the doorstep in my campaign was ' Why can't you all work together to sort out the financial crisis.' The Liberal Democrats have always supported that take on our current economic problems.

It is the mature thing to do in government to work with whoever it takes to get the job done.

A minority Tory administration in a financial crisis would undoubtedly have been a disaster for Britain. We, as Liberal Democrats, have been given the opportunity to prove that strong coalition government works, as it has worked in post war Germany, and I must say that I have come to repsect for David Cameron for the way he has recognised and been able to welcome this as the only workable solution.

Government has changed now forever & thank God. The two party system with its endless recriminations, vicious in fighting & squeezing of radicalism into the centre ground has damaged this country almost beyond repair. I welcome a new, more mature approach to government. In returning a hung parliament this is what the British peopole voted for.

I'd rather have my hand cut off than be a Conservative - but if Sinn Fein & the Unionists can work together & we can't in the short term for the benefit of a country in recession then isn't there something gravely wrong with politics in this country ? Now it's a question of rolling up our sleeves and getting on with the job to be done.