how to change the Govt and spread the cuts out over a longer period?

[mrsbaldwin]

I was thinking to myself this morning, listening to Bob Crow the trade unionist ranting leftily away on the radio about marches and placards, 'hmmm, how do you bring down a Govt in the Mumsnet age'. Not bring it down just for the sake of it you understand, but in order to get a replacement model that will spread the cuts out over a longer period and demand more reparation/better behaviour from the banks.

And these were my thoughts.

We have a Coalition Government. The Tories are in power with the help of the Lib Dems. And it is the Lib Dems who are the pressure point. I will bow to the superior knowledge of anyone who really understands about the inner workings of elections here, but if they withdraw their participation from the Coalition I think the general principle is there needs to be an election, or maybe a Lib-Lab coalition instead.

So how to encourage the Lib Dems to withdraw their support from the Coalition?

And then how to get a Lib-Lab or Lab Govt which promises to spread the cuts out over a longer period?

I am thinking about this.

Any ideas anyone?

The Lib-Dems, when making the coalition agreement, committed to a 5-year parliament, even putting measures in place to ensure that it could not be brought down 'from within' without a majority of MPs agreeing. They reserved the right for their members to campaign vigorously on things like PR but they are standing fully in support of the economic measures.... with the Deputy PM and ministers like Danny Alexander and Vince Cable at the very heart of the decision making.... often knowing about things in advance of their Tory colleagues.

They are very unlikely to split from the coalition for several reasons. Principally because any party that is committed to PR has to demonstrate - when given the opportunity - that coalition government as a principle can work well and provide genuine stability rather than descend into some Belgian style farce. The LDs opted to work with the Conservatives 'for the good of the country' and they will not change horses in mid-stream even though they are getting shit thrown at them from all quarters. They rejected the Labour party at the time and have a lot less in common with them now they are led by union-man Milliband than they did led by Brown.

Petition your MP by all means because the proposals outlined in the Spending Review are not cast in stone... they have to go through parliament and be examined and challenged thoroughly. But I think relying on a coalition breakdown is a non-starter.

Good point Chil re Lib Dems having to demonstrate that PR works - I hadn't thought of that.

So maybe by extension if they lose the vote on AV that is the moment of greatest Coalition vulnerability - because all the Lib Dem party members who are uncomfortable with the Tory liaision but want PR longer term are suddenly brought up short.

And maybe it is left wing Lib Dem MPs (the Simon Hughes wing) who are the key ie if they decide they won't back the Coalition any longer, the Orange Bookers (eg Clegg and Danny Alexander) don't have a mandate to continue. Or would any withdrawal from the Coalition have to be voted on at party conference by Lib Dem party members?

Petitioning MPs: All the lobby groups will do that sort of thing I should think.

I suppose I was really wondering: what can interested people on Mumsnet do, using their keyboards?

I can't remember the precise details but I think there has to be an absolute parliamentary majority (or even higher) before the coalition can be dissolved. I think it was deliberately framed so that neither the LDs nor the Conservatives could walk easily away from the pact on their say-so alone.

I actually support much of what the government is trying to do at the moment but I think some of the details need more work if we're not to create too many victims. I'll be writing to my MP (Con) about the measures where I think they are in danger of alienating people unnecessarily. As we saw with the CB cut and subsequent married couples allowance announcement, they have to present a confident plan but are not above changing if necessary.

My thinking has developed a bit overnight on this.

Do I recall, MNHQ, or any others that during the pre-election period there was a poll of MN-ers that showed the Lib Dems had a higher level of support amongst us, on average, than the other two parties.

Can anyone confirm or deny this? CatherineHMumsnet???