There are reports that while a good number of Lib Dem MPs may abstain in the vote today on tuition fees, some, maybe many, will vote against. They may include two former party leaders, the Deputy Leader and the President. This unfortunate party shambles is being played out without personal attacks or rancour common in political drama. It is because this is more than a drama. It is an agony. This Blog will now define an honourable and acceptable position.
Members of the Coalition Government, who are also Liberal Democrats, are properly and constitutionally entitled to vote for an increase against their pledge, because their pledge was given as prospective M.Ps. It is not Parliament’s government, under our Constitution it is the Queen’s. Her government looks at the matter, then decides and agrees on policy. Having done so, all its ministers are bound by that decision and have to vote for it if challenged by a Division in Parliament. It is their Constitutional duty. The only way out is to resign from the government.
Members of Parliament have a different role entirely. It is their duty to challenge the Executive. They also have a duty to their constituents and to their supporters to honour what, to gain votes, they promised. Otherwise they become con men and women. Thus those Lib Dem MPs not in government who signed the pledge (which I think is all of them) must vote against. Remember the pledge was to vote against any increase. It was not a pledge which was conditional upon winning the election, nor losing it, nor joining with other parties to form a coalition. Once elected on this promise, no agreement signed with other political parties can supersede that pledge, nor entitle any member not in the government to change their mind.
Under our unwritten constitution these points are open to interpretation. However one point is not. The whole thing depends on people who engage in its various institutions being open and honest and doing what they promise. This is what the agony is about. The pledge should never have been signed. But it was. It must be honoured.