Lib-Lab: can Labour and the Liberal Democrats co-operate?

Julian Astle and Alasdair Murray
September 2007

Gordon Brown’s attempt in the summer of 2007 to bring a number of Liberal Democrat peers into his government reopened the debate about co-operation between the two parties. In the event, Menzies Campbell blocked the move, ruling out the prospect of any Liberal Democrat parliamentarians accepting ministerial positions in this parliament. Campbell claimed that the ‘political chasm’ between the parties on issues such as nuclear energy, Trident, ID cards, public services, council tax and the war in Iraq made such a deal impossible to countenance.

But is he right? Is the fissure in progressive politics as wide as he suggests? In seeking to answer this question, this policy brief focuses not on the detailed policies of each party, which are subject to regular revision, but on the underlying values, instincts and attitudes that shape those policies. It sets out, in broad terms, each party’s approach to the key policy challenges of the day and seeks to identify whether some form of cross party collaboration is possible. Finally, it explores what all of this might mean should the next general election result in a hung parliament.

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Media Coverage:

Spectator: Sir Menzies Campbell will either be sacked or will end up in the Cabinet

Prospect: Politics without a majority

Progress: Unbridgeable divide?

In the balance: coalition and minority government in Britain and abroad

Edited by Mark Bell and Alasdair Murray
Chapters by Peter Lynch, John Osmond, Martin Lodge and Kai Wegrich
September 2007

The rise of multi-party politics in Britain makes a hung parliament at Westminster more likely than at any point in the last 25 years. Modern British politics has rarely had to cope with non-majority government and there is little agreement on what its political or institutional implications would be.

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From here to fraternity: perspectives on social responsibility

Jesse Norman, Kitty Ussher and Danny Alexander
September 2007

Politicians of both the left and right claim that Britain is in the midst of a 'social recession'. The notions of fraternity and social responsibility are widely portrayed as part of the solution.

But what does fraternity mean? And does it really represent a 'big idea'?

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Media Coverage:

FT: A Tory quest for renewal based on fraternity

The Scotsman: Why Tories want to move from here to fraternity (pdf)

Tackling educational inequality

Paul Marshall
July 2007

The English school system remains a bastion of educational inequality which steadily reinforces the advantages of birth. Despite improvements to average levels of pupil attainment since 1997, there remains a large and intractable tail of pupils who consistently fail to meet minimum standards of literacy and numeracy. This tail is made up, not of the least able children, but of the most disadvantaged

'Tackling educational inequality' makes the case for overhauling the system of deprivation funding by introducing a new 'pupil premium'. Operating like a weighted voucher system, the pupil premium would ensure not only that funding 'follows the pupil', but that more funding follows the most disadvantaged pupils. This would ensure that more resources become available to the most challenging schools, enabling them to introduce a number of reforms of particular benefit to underachieving children.

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