Laws of the Jungle

Chief Secretary to the Treasury, David Laws, has a problem.  Having campaigned on delaying significant cuts in public spending until next year, the Liberal Democrats have done a 'volte face' to ensure seats at the Cabinet table.  I suspect, however, that the Tories are using Mr Laws as meat for the lions. And he's just about to realise what that means.

Over the next week David Laws has to find £6 billion of cuts in order to deliver a Conservative - not a Liberal Democrat - General Election pledge.  Cancelling Trident is an issue for another day.  But how will the 23% of the country who voted Liberal Democrat view them pursuing a right wing cuts agenda? When you add the numbers together, more than half the country voted against deep cuts now.  Yet, it is a Liberal Democrat doing the Tories' dirty work for them.

Laws says that "key" frontline services will be protected.  That suggests that if a frontline service is not key, it could be vulnerable.  So, if we rule out education and health, that leaves housing, transport, care and a whole host of other services that people depend on and which keep people in work.  Unemployment will rise fast, either because frontline workers are losing their jobs or because the agencies that dish out the funds are scrapped.  Either way, there's less money in the system when it is most needed.  The Liberal Democrats know that.  It's what they asked people to vote for.

Of course, the responsibility will be passed on to others to implement many of these drastic reductions - meaning councils.  And watch out for the eye-catching announcements designed to divert our attention from the real pain.  A "bonfire of the quangos" will certainly be popular with much of the media and the public.    But starting next Monday there will be some very human effects of the Liberal Democrat decision to climb into bed with the Tories.  It's early days in the new government and they want to get the pain out of the way early.  The fact is, there's a lot more where this came from.

With the Lib Dems, though, it's a clever tactic the Tories are following.  On the one hand they are using the softer Liberal Democrats to temper their nasty side. (Did you hear Lynne Featherstone, who I am sure is thoroughly decent woman, talking about women in politics last week?  And have you noticed how omnipresent left wing Lib Dem Simon Hughes has been since the deal was struck?) On the other, the harder Liberal Democrats will be deployed to do much of the unpopular tough stuff.  But, as the much more junior partner in the coalition, the Lib Dems are trapped.  Starting next week, David Laws and the Liberal Democrats will realise that it's a jungle out there.  And they'll be eaten alive.  Give it time.