To be blunt, David Cameron is in one of the most unenviable positions of any British Prime Minister in recent history. Record-high unemployment, the London riots, the phone-hacking scandal, the downgrade of many major British banks, and more must be causing a gargantuan headache for the Conservative-Lib-Dem government at 10 Downing Street. Almost since the beginning of the coalition government’s tenure in power, its been relentlessly hounded by crises, impossible decisions, and just about every nightmare scenario that keeps politicians up at night. However, what makes the situation especially tragic is that the Tories and Liberal Democrats are in part trapped in this situation by their own machinations, beginning with promising an unforeseeable economic breakthrough. They don’t have many obvious ways out.
While it’s obvious that it has not been peaches and cream for David Cameron, the full, crushing weight of the misery of the situation takes some closer examination. Take for example, the resignation of Liam Fox, now ex-Minister of Defense, for taking trips with one Adam Werritty which have been revealed to be funded by various corporate sources. Bad enough a top-level Conservative MP is taken down for essentially being on the corporate dole, which won’t exactly help the Conservative’s problem of being seen as friends of the City of London, the British analogy to Wall Street in terms of financial power and public perception. The revelations didn’t just end there after it was found that Liam Fox’s now defunct Atlantic Bridge charity was fostering links between British Conservatives and Tea Party funders, like the now infamous Koch Brothers. This Atlantic Bridge group, with its links to the American Legislative Exchange Council, supposedly fostered anti-global warming thought, as well as pushed greater deregulation of healthcare and the energy industry. Now, that doesn’t help Cameron who has been advancing a vision of a new Conservative party that believes in things like climate change, and isn’t out to completely obliterate the NHS due to some Conservative article of faith.
One could go through every British crisis of the past few years and show just how cataclysmic they’ve all been for the Conservative-Liberal-Democrat coalition, but one quick look at the polls will show just how bad of a thrashing this has given them. But here’s the kicker, Clegg and Cameron seem to be holding fast to their positions even as their political worlds seem to crash down around them. Cameron has refused to back down from his severe austerity plan or even consider stimulus, even as the IMF tells his government to stop tightening, banks get downgraded, and unemployment soars. Instead, Cameron has called for Britons to have a stiff upper lip. Before even getting to how condescending or paternalistic that sounds, just in a purely political sense it almost seems insane that he would do what politicians usually jump in buses before doing in criticizing the character of their constituents. No retreat, no surrender, not even an acknowledgement of uncertainty, Cameron seems to have taken George W. Bush’s imposition to “Stay the Course” as his personal modus operandi.
While it’s somewhat understandable that Cameron would stick to his guns on the hope that Labour won’t be able to reassemble into a cohesive threat, Clegg seems to be ready to go down with the coalition ship at this point. Even in the face of huge drops of public support, out right accusations of betrayal by the party faithful, and levels of discontent mirroring or even eclipsing that of progressive discontent with President Obama, Clegg isn’t making any apologies. Even as the political sky seems to be falling on the Liberal Democrats who are far from the heights of popularity they experienced during the last election, even as back-benchers make more than a few disquieted noises, Clegg is doing is still standing by Cameron with almost Herculean endurance. In the end, it’s unclear how much political loyalty counts when the base is out for blood.
The Lib-Dems and Tories have completely boxed themselves into a corner and they don’t have a way out without performing a public and likely embarrassing about-face or a turn of events so fortuitous it would resemble divine providence. If we look at the austerity issue, Cameron either has the option of hoping the economy picks up soon, so he can credit the success to his policies, but leaving him open to intense criticism if that economic boom doesn’t occur, or he can rollback the austerity programs and implement stimulative policies, but that would require going back on years of tough rhetoric which would leave him with more than a little egg on his face. However, unlike Clegg he at least still has the option of potentially back-pedaling some, regrouping, and then trying again. Clegg, if he wanted to change course, would either have to ally with Labour and force a vote of no confidence, but with the Lib-Dems single-digit popularity, it’s hardly likely anything will happen besides several seats being lost for his party and potentially being relegated back to being a second-tier political force, or he could try to push harder at the table with the Conservatives, but even then he couldn’t push too hard without risking an election being called could potentially wipe out both parties or a Conservative backlash that leads to the Lib-Dems being given even less leeway to curtail Conservative excesses than before.
In short, Cameron and Clegg are in rather dire political straits, no matter how one analyzes the situation. While Labour isn’t some unstoppable juggernaut at this point and it has more than its own share of internal problems, fundamentally since Labour isn’t in power, they aren’t holding the bag on the issues that daunt Britain. However, Cameron and Clegg aren’t just victims of circumstance because on some level they maneuvered themselves into their current position. It’s their move and Britain depends on it but more and more it seems like staying pat to their current positions isn’t going to cut it.