The coalition gets a pretty bad press now and I have by and large given up defending it, I find people have largely made up their minds and there isn’t much room for debate. My own view for what it’s worth is that although some really great things were achieved during that period it was fundamentally a mistake. 

On a purely political level by partnering with the Conservatives the Liberal Democrat voter coalition that had been painstakingly been built up since the late 1980’s was destroyed. Before that moment the party had a reputation for integrity, fairness, and hard working local councillors. After, many voters felt let down and betrayed and no amount of pointing out that we were the junior partners in the coalition would help. The result was disastrous; the party went from 57 MP’s in 2010 to 8 in 2015. The local councillor base, for so long a badge of pride for the party, declined from over 3,500 in 2010 to just under 2,200. After the 2015 general election of 2015 ‘the party was weaker electorally than it had been at any time since the early 1970’s’ (1).

The rot set in pretty quickly after the coalition was formed. Upon finalising the coalition agreement William Hague, a key member of the Conservative negotiating team, is reported to have told his wife, Ffion: ‘I think I’ve just killed the Liberal Democrats’ (2). Within 7 months of the 2010 election a YouGov poll had the Liberal Democrats at 8% (3), down from the 23% achieved at the general election. 

During the coalition years and after many Lib Dem activists were keen to point out the Lib Dem achievements. Mark Pack, now the party president, even produced an infographic shared widely amongst members that detailed 12 key policy areas where Lib Dem ministers had made a key contributions (4). These included fairer taxes, 2 million new apprenticeships, a green investment bank, pupil premium, pension reforms, and same sex marriage. These are not to be ignored and are notable achievements, even though some were subsequently reversed by the Conservative government after 2015. 

Perhaps most important the coalition delivered 5 years of stable government in the aftermath of the most severe financial crisis since the 1930’s, something not to be sniffed at given the instability of the last 5 years. An oft overlooked point is the things that Lib Dems stopped the Conservatives doing by effectively allowing David Cameron to ignore the right wing of his party. Of course the counter argument is that the coalition only delayed rather than prevented these changes (EU referendum, snoopers charter, £12bn welfare cuts etc). 

So was it worth it? In short, no. Although some long lasting liberal changes were made many were either subsequently reversed, stopped, or would likely have been introduced anyway. Perhaps the most damaging consequence of the coalition was the way in which senior Lib Dem MP’s bought into the Conservatives narrative of austerity, particularly after 2013. 

Now, 5 years on, there are still a number of things that have lasted. But in my view these are not significant enough to justify the almost complete removal of a liberal voice from national front line politics. For a brief period, swelled by anti-Brexit sentiment, Liberal Democrat popularity surged again but the results of the 2019 election and current opinion polls which put support around 8% (5) indicate that the fundamental problems of the Liberal Democrats remain to be solved. 

If we are to recover as a party then we need to recognise the mistakes of the coalition years. In the same way Tony Blair challenged his party in the 1990’s and Theresa May told Conservative members they were often seen as ‘the nasty party’, a public acknowledgement and recognition of our role in the coalition is needed before a line in the sand can be drawn. Until we do this we will continue to languish in the polls. 

It is perhaps worth ending with a postive note. In my view the party now has two people, in Ed Davey as leader and Mark Pack as Party President, who are thinking through these challenges in a deep and rigorous manner. It is early days but Britain needs a strong liberal voice, and I will keep fighting for that voice.