Libertarians and the Con-Dem alliance

Clegg's really found a voice, hasn't he?

We will oversee the radical dispersal of power away from Westminster and Whitehall to councils, communities and homes across the nation. So that, wherever possible, people make the call over the decisions that affect their lives. And, crucially, the relentless incursions of the state into the lives of individuals that has characterised the last 13 years ends here. From rolling back excessive surveillance, to ending the criminalisation of innocent people, we will restore and protect our hard-won civil liberties.

I call that agenda liberalism. Others may have other names for it, but whatever terms you prefer, this is our best guarantee of a fair society. That is the case I have argued my whole political life. Yes, as the coalition moves ahead there will be bumps and scrapes along the way; there has already been significant compromise from both sides and there will of course need to be more. And, no, we do not yet have all of the answers to the inevitable questions that lie ahead. While we will be open about our differences, we also know that our strength – the strength now needed to deliver the change needed in Britain – depends on being the sum of our parts. And from our different traditions we can pursue one simple, shared aim: this will be the government that re-empowers the British people.

Which sounds wonderful, really. All that's missing is the "how" - how is the Con-Dem Coalition going to achieve those wonderful aims? Because, given the parties involved in the alliance governing this country, we could be forgiven for being a little cynical about whether their government will actually follow through with Clegg's splendid rhetoric.

See, the Liberal Democrats are generally quite strong on civil liberties, but when it comes to economics and taxation, spurious talk of "fairness" seems to overcome any tendency towards actual economic freedom. Witness the Mansion Tax. And their anti-banker rhetoric (that Clegg hints at in his article). And while the Tories might be better when it comes to economics, they remain deeply socially conservative. They are the party of tax breaks to stigmatise those who aren't married and spawning, they are the party of the idiotic voluntary national service scheme. Oh, and they are the party of Philippa Stroud. You can be free in Tory Britain, as long as you resemble and agree with the views of the blue rinse brigade who provide much of that party's core support.

Sure, the Con-Dem coalition have made a good start in some of their actions, but these are not so much a ringing endorsement of the new governing alliance as an indication of just how far the last Labour government got at shitting all over civil liberties in this country. The first actions of the coalition are not bold steps towards freedom, but rather dragging us back to normality after the draconian actions of the utterly illiberal Labour party. But moving forward, the best we can probably hope for is that each party balances the illiberal tendencies of the other.

For Libertarians everywhere in this country, there's no real reason to think that this coalition will be genuinely committed to freedom, and every reason to suspect that they might not be. Despite the truculent, triumphalist assertions of some, there is no reason for Libertarians to suddenly rush and embrace either the Tories or the Liberal Democrats. Neither of those parties remains fundamentally Libertarian (or even that Liberal). Being better than the Labour party does not make either entity actually committed to freedom. Any true Libertarian in the United Kingdom can raise a glass to toast the demise of Labour and, with it, the end of godawful ideas such as the ID card scheme. But they should also know that the best the Con-Dem coalition can offer is a step in the right direction - it certainly isn't the end game in the battle to roll back the state in this country. At best, this coalition will less awful that Labour - nothing more.