As a journalist, I know that words like “row”, “split”, “fury” and “crisis” are the lifeblood of our trade. I know that we should begin all stories with sentences like, “The Prime Minister was fighting for his political life last night”. So it is with deep regret that I must inform you, before the party conference season has even finished, that British politics is passing through a period of calm. This may seem strange, since we are living in the most troubled times since the Second World War, but it is so. Calm prevails because it is not, at present, in the interest of any political party to disturb the existing order. Labour, after 13 years which ended in ignominy, is not nearly ready for anything. During Ed Miliband’s speech to his party conference this week, the television connections to Liverpool went down for several minutes. The frame froze on Mr Miliband, in one of those unhappy moments when his eyelids close as if in response to his own eloquence. “LIVE” said a box in the corner of the screen, but it did not look like it. Actually, Mr Miliband’s thoughts are not as limp as his delivery. I don’t agree with those who say he is simply returning his party to the Left. He is trying to address people’s anxiety that morality and money have parted company, both at the top and bottom of society. But the general assumption is that he won’t be prime minister. His job is to provide his party with respite care. The Liberal Democrats are heavily invested in the status quo. They must continue in the Government which their members love to attack, because the alternative is collapse at the election which would follow any breakdown of the Coalition. Conservative MPs were irritated by all the gloating at the Liberal conference about how they had stopped “reactionary Tory drivel” (© Tim Farron), but Conservative ministers encounter very little trouble round the Cabinet table. They get Liberal agreement on the policies – above all, on the deficit – which, in their opinion, really matter.
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