It’s noticeable how Welsh Lib Dem blogs seem to be copying the stance of the party throughout the UK by making absolutely no mention of yesterday’s massive anti-cuts protest. Having been the habitual party of protest for so long – and clearly unable to assimilate the ‘right-on’ to ‘right-wing’ dynamic – such denial is probably be expected. Yet we see that no-one is jumping to defend the stance taken by sorry old Vince Cable who told the BBC that the march would not change “the basic economic strategy”.
Indeed, the business secretary seemed a little out of touch with his party’s mainstream than usual. For while he was describing the ConDem coalition as “one of the strongest”, Jenny Willott, the Lib Dems' welfare spokesperson was putting the Downing Street’s flagship plan to cap family benefits into disarray – allegedly at Nick Clegg’s personal urging.
The Observer says Lib Dems are set to renege over previously agreed plans to cap benefits at £500 a week per family on the basis that the move would risk increases child poverty and homelessness. However cynics suggest that it is the advent of regional & local elections that is behind this dramatic ‘policy re-think’ – which might even see the see the party joining forces with charities & senior local authority figures to oppose the measures. Few expect the current Lib Dem concerns to last beyond 6th May or thereabouts.
As it happens, the majority of commentators believe Clegg is trailing (via Willott and others) an already done deal to introduce necessary transitional arrangements which he can present to his own side and the outside world as further evidence that Lib Dems are a moderating force within the coalition.
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