May 12: Consensus, stability, the national interest...
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Whatever private reservations they might have about
jumping into political matrimony with the Lib Dems, Kent MPs are
keeping them firmly under their collective hats – at least
today.
Speaking to some, the mantra of
stability and national interest has been repeated so much I began
to suspect they’d been handed a briefing note by
Conservative Central Office with key lines to take
should a journalist solicit their views.
Only Sir John Stanley
(Tonbridge and Malling) let slip with a delightful: "No-one
can accuse us of a lack of generousity" when I asked him if he felt
the Lib Dems had got too good a deal out of Mr Cameron.
But let’s not be too cynical. There is
genuinely a sense of optimism that the coalition, given a fair
wind, could endure but this is clearly the honeymoon period.
Let’s see how things unfold when the
going gets a bit sticky and they have to agree to cuts to budgets
and get around to agreeing the much-anticipated – if not feared –
public spending squeeze.
It’ll be fascinating to see how the
mutual admiration at a national level plays out at a local level.
To say there is deep-seated antipathy in some quarters of Kent
between the two parties now running the country would be something
of an understatement.
Mutual loathing rather than admiration
comes to mind.
Still, as there is such a spirit of
consensus around, maybe the Conservative administration at County
Hall is preparing to hand out a few cabinet jobs to the Lib
Dems.
Oh, just spotted a pig flying over
Sessions House…
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Paraphrased - what Kent MPs are
saying about the coalition today:
"It’s in the national interest"
"It’s important we have a stable
government."
"We are where we are, it’s not where
we’d like to be."
"Coalition is about deals and
compromise."
And what they might say in the
future:
"We always knew there’d be bumps and
scrapes along the way."
"It was always a leap of faith."
"You can’t just set aside
principles."
"Frankly, we always knew they’d let us
down."
Wednesday, May 12 2010
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