aw crap, they got in

Let’s be clear: I’m a progressive liberal leftie, about as far from conservatism as you can get, bar the small government stuff. And even that is really a left-wing ideal, despite what recent “left wing” governments in this country have actually done.

But I digress. I’m a lefty, I believe in social justice (whatever that means), and yet I’m not wailing in the streets this morning, rending cloth and gnashing teeth.

Did I miss the memo? The Tories are coming! THE TORIES ARE COMING!

Well, no. I didn’t miss the memo. For one thing, it’s raining today, so I’m not going out unless I really have to, and for the other, well, I’m a little confused as to what we’re wailing about.

Oh, right. We’re headed back to the eighties. Fire up the Quattro and all that. Well, forgive me for not quite getting bent out of shape just yet. Here’s why:

Cause / Effect

We got the eighties because we had the seventies. Everyone hates Thatcher for smashing the unions, but what, exactly, was the alternative? Everyone hates Thatcher for ruthlessly privatising everything, but what, exactly, was the alternative?

This isn’t a post to praise Thatcher, not by a long shot. I mean to bury her, and perhaps even bury the spectre of her. Many of the problems she’s blamed for were the result of having to fix problems started by Labour mismanagement in the seventies. Yes, she was equally guilty of fucking things up, but run a little thought experiment: imagine the eighties under Callaghan. Now imagine the nineties after Callaghan.

It’s as easy to point to Thatcher’s Tories as evil because of what happened to this country in the eighties as it is to point to Blair’s Labour as wonderful because he inherited a country with a stable economy at the height of the dotcom boom, and had Liam Gallagher round for tea. We’re now in a situation where the country’s screwed, thanks to Brown’s handling of the economy and security, rapidly heading towards a police state, where graduates are unemployable and in massive debt, where using the internet is soon to be a crime, where we engaged in a war of aggression, colluded with war criminals, hounded out nay sayers, and bulldozed opposition in parliament because of a massive incumbent majority.

And we’re still talking about “short memories” because of Thatcher.

Balance

The argument against the Tories seems to be “anyone but the Tories”. How constructive. Whom? A party that, as it stands, is guilty of incompetence? An unproven party that has never taken power? Or a party that hasn’t been in power for over a decade, has (perhaps, perhaps not) changed since then?

Or is there an alternative?

What this country needs, more than anything, is balance, conversation, discussion and progression. What we have now is partisan, us and them bullshit threatening to drown out the point that something new is happening here: we have a coalition government, and one with a razor thin majority. Yes, it’s the Tories in power, but it’s the Tories relying on co-operation with the centre. We have Labour in opposition, and it’s Labour relying on co-operation to do their job of opposing.

In short, we have a potential parliament again: somewhere where bills may actually be debated and voted on an individual basis, not rammed through on whim *cough*DEBill*cough*. We have a parliament where our MPs might actually show up, because they might actually make a difference if they do.

We have the Tories in power, but a potentially powerful watchdog.

What if

So what alternatives were there? Clegg could have told Cameron and Brown where to go. Strategically, I’d have liked this. I’d have preferred Cameron attempting a minority government. It would have crashed and burned, and we’d have a general election in six months. In my little fantasy (indulge me), Clegg would have come out of the negotiations squeaky clean, having not compromised his principles, Labour would be adrift and unelectable after 13 years of mismanagement, the Tories would have very recently, very publicly fucked up after only six months, and Clegg would win in a landslide.

That option is still open to Clegg, but it’s unlikely to happen. The Liberals’ hold on the media has never been strong. He’d be painted as a modern-day Hamlet as fast as possible by both sides, and we’d get another minority result with the blame squarely on his shoulders in the public eye.

So he compromised. Get used to it. That’s what is hopefully going to dominate this government. Compromise. It’s what this country desperately needs, and it’s something we’ve never tried before. I could be wrong, the Tories may still be evil, and in twelve months we may be begging for mercy. But make no mistake, life under a continued Labour government was getting worse, and had to end. Five more years of Brown would have been five more years of criminality, public bailouts of private fuck ups, increased surveillance, hyper inflation and darkness. The 2010s are coming, regardless of who’s in power. We can’t afford “business as usual”, regardless of who’s in Number 10.

And if nothing else, this election was a ringing condemnation of “business as usual”.