Could the Conservatives have passed something worse without the Lib Dem support? I guess if the LDs abstained that would leave a majority for the Conservatives.
If the LDs abstained, as per coalition agreement, it would get through easily.
But I suspect LAbour would broadly back it or abstain if the negotiations had been different.
Willets is a canny operator, if the LDs as a group had said "we'll abstain on this", he'd have worked with LAbour and got a cross-party agreement, which is what Browne was set up to be.
Would likely have been better for the LDs politically, but worse for students. Labour has a tendency to be oppositional for its own sake, but if approached in the right way it could've made them really look bad if they'd refused a consensus approach.
LD leadership has handled it very badly, especially on the PR front, but appears to have got a better deal than I thought possible without an LD overall majority.
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andrewducker) wrote2010-11-13 11:20 am
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But I suspect LAbour would broadly back it or abstain if the negotiations had been different.
Willets is a canny operator, if the LDs as a group had said "we'll abstain on this", he'd have worked with LAbour and got a cross-party agreement, which is what Browne was set up to be.
Would likely have been better for the LDs politically, but worse for students. Labour has a tendency to be oppositional for its own sake, but if approached in the right way it could've made them really look bad if they'd refused a consensus approach.
LD leadership has handled it very badly, especially on the PR front, but appears to have got a better deal than I thought possible without an LD overall majority.