To recap ...
Before the election Clegg made a last minute pitch at the student/parent vote with his 'pledge' and some people were persuaded to vote for him & Clegg won some seats.
No party won an outright majority so coalition talks started. Tories saw that with LibDem seats they had a parlimentary
majority. A coalition was thrashed out & announced. This involved compromise, as anyone might expect.
The LibDem education backtrack is announced - the pledge was not kept. Voters express dismay - when is a pledge not a pledge? "When you enter a coalition" say some people smugly.
If Clegg hadn't made the pledge he would not have garnered so many votes, why else make the pledge? It was to gain votes. Fewer votes might mean fewer seats and less/no bargaining power for coalition. A Tory/Lib Dem coalition might not have been possible/practical. So the pledge might have made the coalition possble.
Call it deception. Call it dishonesty. Call it realpolitik. Whichever way you look at it, the public was fooled and we resent it.
As ye sow, so shall ye reap, someone wrote once.
Before the election Clegg made a last minute pitch at the student/parent vote with his 'pledge' and some people were persuaded to vote for him & Clegg won some seats.
No party won an outright majority so coalition talks started. Tories saw that with LibDem seats they had a parlimentary
majority. A coalition was thrashed out & announced. This involved compromise, as anyone might expect.
The LibDem education backtrack is announced - the pledge was not kept. Voters express dismay - when is a pledge not a pledge? "When you enter a coalition" say some people smugly.
If Clegg hadn't made the pledge he would not have garnered so many votes, why else make the pledge? It was to gain votes. Fewer votes might mean fewer seats and less/no bargaining power for coalition. A Tory/Lib Dem coalition might not have been possible/practical. So the pledge might have made the coalition possble.
Call it deception. Call it dishonesty. Call it realpolitik. Whichever way you look at it, the public was fooled and we resent it.
As ye sow, so shall ye reap, someone wrote once.
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