The benefits of Coalition 2010-14

The Journal uses its leader column (6/10/14) to argue, not entirely consistently, that the Lib Dems were right to go into coalition with the Conservatives in 2010, given the electoral arithmetic, but that they should not contemplate coalition next time.

With less than one-tenth of the total number of MPs in Parliament, the Lib Dems have achieved more than 70% of our 2010 manifesto. Yes, it may be painful that we have not achieved 100% of it, but we have delivered more for the North East than Labour managed in 13 years in office with a parliamentary majority and a blank chequebook.

Without the coalition, this country would not be making significant progress on delivering the economic recovery, reducing unemployment and tackling the national finances. Without the Lib Dems, there would not have been a significant reduction of the tax burden on those earning less than £12,000 and there would not have been millions of pounds of investment in North East schools via the Pupil Premium, not to mention free school meals, significant expansion of free child care, and important and beneficial reforms to pensions.

It is doubtful whether the level of emphasis on environmental sustainability, international aid, and human rights would have been maintained without the Lib Dems standing up for these issues in government.

Leaving aside the simply untrue assertion that the Lib Dems did not envisage coalition before the 2010 election, the Journal should have the courage of its convictions and tell its readers which of the following it would advocate.

* Would it prefer an Ed Miliband led Labour government which has shown little appetite for the challenge of tackling the deficit and rebalancing the economy?

* Would it prefer a Conservative government which would seemingly aim to deliver further tax cuts for 40p rate taxpayers at the expense of the poorest, take the UK out of the European Court for Human Rights, and put our membership of the EU in doubt?

* Or would it prefer to see the junior coalition partner continuing to take steps to address youth unemployment in the region, grow the region's manufacturing economy, invest in our transport infrastructure, and ensure devolution of powers and resources to city regions?

I suspect that if pressed, the Journal would concede that this last option is preferable to the Conservatives governing alone and unrestrained, or an unconvincing and unreconstructed Labour government governing alone.

The challenge for the Lib Dems remains the same as it was at the 2010 election: To persuade people that the only alternative to tough decisions to rescue the economy and the public finances is to duck them, as Labour would have us believe, and that there is a better, fairer way of achieving this than the Conservatives seem to believe.

Those who are keen to make the Lib Dems the scapegoats in May 2015 may belatedly discover that the situation proves to be worse without the Lib Dems, not better - as people who live in Newcastle City Council's area may ruefully agree, given Labour's unrestricted stewardship over the last few years.

Yours sincerely

Cllr Greg Stone

Lib Dem, Newcastle City Council

(letter to The Journal newspaper in Newcsatle 6th October 2014)