Coalition Government or Conservative, which is better for the Lib Dems?

Thanks to NoetiCat I stumbled across this article suggesting the BBC are now referring to the government as the Conservative government rather than the Conservative lead Coalition. There is of course one of two possible outcomes from this.




The Lib Dems will no longer be as attached to any cuts that are made or unpopular decisions. However there will still an underlying knowledge that the Lib Dems are involved. As such they may still get the credit for good decisions and can boost about them within campaign literature. Although there probably is some truth in the first part of this statement the second half is highly hopeful and I doubt that there is much truth in it. If we had gained a post coalition bounce and gone up in the polls then I might believe it. However the opposite was true and as such it is more likely we would just stay low in the polls.



The second is that we will regain the notion that a vote for Lib Dems is a wasted vote due to the absence of presence in the press. In addition de-associating the Lib Dems with any decisions would suggest that coalitions only lead to the largest party getting their will and the minority partner being irrelevant. In addition it will mean that the conservatives can take the praise for all the good that comes from this government and get a further poll boost (bear in mind that when the Conservatives do badly the Lib Dems usually do well).



As such I believe we should push to have the coalition continued to be referred to as such rather than a conservative government. We may wish to take the easier root for now and releave the pressure of some of the criticism that will come under the current spending cuts, however we will then lose out on the long term benefits that being in government will provide.