The Independent View: Making Coalition Government Work - Lessons for the Future
25 July 2012
Dr Ben Yong writing in Liberal Democrat Voice
In 2011 the Constitution Unit spent one year examining how the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition works. We interviewed almost 150 people about the Coalition: individuals from both parties-both in and outside Parliament-as well as civil servants, journalists, and interest groups. We have just published the result of our study in a book: The Politics of Coalition: How the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Works
We are particularly grateful to all those Lib Dems who were so
generous in giving their time to be interviewed, and for Mark Pack's
very kind review of our book. And in the same spirit, we offer some thoughts on lessons for the future. Professor John Curtice
argues that the conditions that led to a hung parliament in 2010
remain; and even if the boundary reforms goes through, the possibility
of a hung parliament is still quite high. Even if, as some
suggest, the Liberal Democrats will lose a large number of seats in
2015, they may still be in a position to determine the shape of a new
government. So what lessons are there to be learned from the last two
years of the Coalition, and how might the Lib Dems approach a hung
parliament in 2015?