A noticeable and unexpected trait emerging among the hitherto free-thinking souls behind a few Welsh tory and Lib Dem blogs is their unreserved endorsement of whatever right-ish but populist mantra that comes out of the Cameron-Clegg government.
Partisan commentary of this ilk is hardly surprising in this post-honeymoon period. After all, it’s over a decade since the Conservatives were in power and very few people alive today can remember when Liberals last roamed the earth Whitehall thus there is still some sense of novelty. Even so, all the unabashed cheer-leading from the acolytes makes it feels a bit like the Life of Brian as they swarm back and forth in synch with whatever ministerial muttering has made today’s lead news.
The reshuffling of reality (and short term memories) that followed the VAT announcement is the sort of thing you might expect as the coalition finds its feet - not an easy trick on constantly shifting ground. But the trend seems to be that if Cameron is angry about continued resistance to admitting Turkey to the EU then tory bloggers are incandescent – and who cares about institutionalised human rights abuses sanctioned by Ankara against the Kurdish population, anyway. Similarly, on-line Lib Dems who have previously lambasted Conservatives for seeking to dismantle simplify the benefits system, are now thoughtfully backing IDS by reproducing some helpful examples of just how jolly well complicated the present arrangement has become – and ASBOs don’t really work either, apparently.
If these bloggers are happy to reproduce cut-and-paste spin from their respective HQs then that is entirely their business; to be honest we find it quite entertaining to read the implausible suggestion that each party is leading the other when initiatives find fleeting popular approval - and the reverse when the shit hits the headlines. But this continued insistence that the coalition has produced a government run by enlightened tories and moderated by hard-nosed Lib Dems only serves to raise one key question, namely: who on earth are they trying to convince?
1 Comments:
They are talking it up because they know they are headed for a stuffing in Wales and Scotland next year. And the tories are right to worry about an increased turnout with referedums and elections. I would not be surprised if we saw the parties in power at Westminster getting all but wiped out in Cardiff Bay and Holyrood.
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