Coalitions again

OK. Enough with this now. Really, enough with it.

"Look, there are cracks in the coalition. They don't agree with each other." Cry Labour, the press, the right wing blogs.

Well, no shit Sherlock. If they bloody agreed on everything they'd have stood for the same party, wouldn't they?

Seriously, some people have real difficulties with this. And it's baffling, because it was utterly apparent in the last government that there were a ton of ministers who didn't always agree with what Brown or Blair were doing.

It's what happens. You can't expect the kind of people who go into politics to be so utterly devoid of independent thought (although the Labour leadership candidates do hint at it) as to go along fully with everything anyone else proposes.

So, you know what happens? They compromise. And this is a good thing for everyone. The Lib Dems get some of their policies through that they wouldn't get through otherwise. And temper the worst of the Tory programme. But clearly can't veto all of it, otherwise, you know, they'd be the senior partners. And the Tories get a huge majority of their program through, and with an ample enough majority to mean there's no risk of collapse of the government so the program actually survives.

I get a feeling that everyone getting excited about splits is just being disingenuous and actually realises this. But it does need reiterating.

The Lib Dems and Tories are going to disagree on government policies. It's inevitable, and actually desirable. And usually they'll come to some compromise; but some of the time they won't but basically have to say "Yeah, fair enough, you have this stuff I oppose, because in the end it's better that than the entire government comes down".

It's called being a bit mature, and flexible, shades of grey, and compromise.