Of course, I’ve heard the speak about how we live in a country, England, that is fundamentally left. I am not convinced. I still believe that, as a country, we’re very conservative, with the small ‘c’. Not ‘C’ for the other word I commonly encounter in relation to the coalition’s cuts on Facebook.
The implications of this for May 6th are pretty straight-forward. We go from a position where people were voting to keep Cameron out to a position where people vote to keep Clegg out. A vast majority of people feel that Nick Clegg has been utterly useless in government in voicing any concerns about EMA, tuition fees, and a vast gamut of themes. Therefore, they simply won’t vote for anything that remotely represents him. This could mean that people will vote Conservative or Labour, according to what will achieve that aim. I do not feel that there is widespread hatred to the cuts, as there is possibly towards the tuition fees. There is an unspoken sense that many members of the general public do appreciate the argument that it’s unwise to spend £120 million/day on interest. I would not be surprised if the Conservatives actually do rather well in the elections. It is not impossible that, with the current electoral system, they could even win. There is, of course, a huge number of people who oppose the rate and depth of the cuts, but they might find the odds voting against the sitting government heavily stacked against them.
And what does being conservative mean for the AV vote? Well, in this new breaking pledge era, Labour’s previous commitment to it is not that important. It does mean, however, people might vote in favour of keeping the status quo, particularly if it means that the second choice doesn’t come out as victorious (a Nick Clegg clone), or if they simply don’t understand the new system. If the country votes ‘No’ for AV, it might be seen as a tacit indorsement for David Cameron, but it will be difficult to ignore the impact this has on Nick Clegg. No matter how hard the spin doctors tell us to keep the issues separate.
