Smaller parties have no role in this election
The smaller parties have no role to play in this election because, for once, the voters don’t need them
‘It’s early days yet,” said my old Cabinet colleague, Sir Vince Cable, in a Monday morning interview in which he valiantly tried to justify the performance of the Liberal Democrats in the election campaign so far. The problem with this defence is that it’s four weeks since the election was called and three weeks to polling day, which is not “early days” by any stretch. The point at which his party should be making an impact, if they are going to do so, has already arrived.
I have a more charitable view of the Lib Dems as a party than most Conservatives, because I remember many of them doing a good job in the coalition government. But, more recently, they have tied themselves in knots, whether it be leader Tim Farron taking days to conclude that gay sex is not a sin, or their vote in the House of Lords against beginning the Brexit process despite the referendum result. Suddenly, they don’t seem too keen on being either liberal or democratic.
Yet their bigger problem is that voters, being more intelligent than they are often given credit for, know they are choosing a government from one of the two big parties, while using smaller parties for specific purposes. This is particularly true of Ukip, which millions of people voted for to exert the pressure that led to last year’s vote to leave the EU. However, having done so successfully, those voters are now going elsewhere.
By far the wisest course for Ukip would be to say: “We are now suspending our campaigning until we see the result of the negotiations with the EU and recommend that our supporters vote Conservative to ensure the wishes of the people are observed. We will return to action if necessary.”
That would be both more realistic and more potent than struggling on to defeat for no obvious reason.
Similarly, the reason the Lib Dems have not made much headway in the past month is that voters are not finding them terribly useful. That may sound heartless, but the electorate do not vote for a party out of pity.
In many past elections the Liberals have been used by the electorate to send a protest vote, but they gave up much of that support by entering government in 2010. In any case, with a new Prime Minister in office, who has so far presided over more jobs, a growing economy, a well-behaved party and a faithful implementation of the people’s wishes, there is less than usual to protest about.
Sometimes people have voted Lib Dem because they positively want a coalition, not a strong majority party. But, at the moment, most people can see that the very last thing the country needs are the compromises and hesitations of coalition, which would embolden the EU negotiators to drive the hardest Brexit bargain possible and leave Jean-claude Juncker licking his lips about how much he could extract from the British taxpayer.
Still others have been seeking a pragmatic approach to politics, which caters for people overlooked in the struggle between Left and Right. The biggest problem of all for the Liberals, and indeed for all the opposition parties, is that Theresa May is doing her best to win the support of those people.
The Prime Minister’s reported proposal to bring mental health within the Equality Act is a good example of her efforts and is part of the response to a growing and worrying feature of modern society. Ideas such as entitlement to leave from work in order to care for an elderly relative, or updated rights for people working in the “gig” economy, are also a recognition of how working habits and demographic trends are changing.
If that doesn’t sound like the doctrinaire, ruthless image painted of Tories in recent decades, it is because that caricature has never been true.
Mrs May has seized the opportunity to present policies that can appeal to voters along a broad spectrum, from the centre to the Right – all the more appealing as Labour marches to the Left and the Liberals are in a muddle.
Some people will ask if the Tory emphasis on looking after “the workers” can be combined with the pro-business policies needed to attract investment and jobs as we go through the uncertainties of leaving the EU. The answer is that it is an essential part of maintaining the support within the country for a system that favours free enterprise and is open to businesses and talent from all over the world, as the UK absolutely has to be.
Much of the discontent in western countries stems from the divisive effects of the economic changes seen over recent decades. While many have prospered from the spread of follow William Hague on Twitter @Williamjhague; read more at telegraph.co.uk/ opinion global industries and technologies, others have felt that the pressures on their area, or their family, or on their working life, are not understood.
The Corbyn way of dealing with that, involving huge rises in tax and borrowing against the future, would be a total disaster. Quite apart from the mere sight of him taking office scaring off those both at home or abroad who we need to invest in the UK, his plan for a steep rise in corporation tax would, in reality, mean less money for the runaway public spending that he keeps proposing.
If the choice in this election is between such hard-left nonsense and a harsh form of Conservatism, those Lib Dems would indeed have their opening. But both Mrs May and David Cameron before her have understood that British elections are won by dominating the centre ground.
In 2017, that does not mean endless spending pledges. It does mean showing those people who are not the highly mobile and the university-educated that their needs for vocational education, flexibility at work, more housing and updated defences against exploitation are part of their government’s programme. That is not in conflict with businesses prospering – it is a necessary condition of them doing so.
Mrs May is thus striking the right balance between maintaining an enterprise economy and ensuring the fairness and consent on which it rests. That is in a great Tory tradition and is a logical next step in the regular renewal of a remarkable political party. And it is a key reason why Lib Dem candidates, along with those from Ukip, have a very serious problem on the doorsteps of Britain. On this occasion, the voters don’t actually need them.