Today could be a day school children learn about in a hundred years time. The day Britain broke free from the yoke of despotism and embraced democracy. More likely the powers of vested interest and privilege will win the day and the vote will be lost.
The House of Lords is a disgrace, if a foreign country decided to set up a democracy where an unelected bunch of rich, religious and privileged old people could veto legislation, we would call this a scandal. This is precisely what happens today in Briatain.
Astonishingly only 4% of Lords are under the age of 50! and there are only 2 Lords (out of 850) under the age of 40 (and none under the age of 35).
The Lords does have power - it amends legislation on a regular basis and often squashes legislation by talking it out. It is not the benign institution it is made out to be. It has a track record of defending privilege and power at the expense of Joe Public.
But the question I want to really ask is what happens for us if we do lose the vote tonight. Over the last few years, as a Lib Dem, I've taken a lot of flack. The Government cuts have lost us votes by the bucket full (although I agree with them and actually they are basically Labour's fault). But I have struggled to swallow the changes to the NHS, tuition fees, the 50p rate, Police Commissioners, Free Schools and much more. I have swallowed these changes because I accept the need for compromise in a coalition Government.
Over the last few years, in the North, we have lost about two thirds of the Councillors, I and many of my friends have lost their jobs - through no fault of our own. We no longer run large Councils such as Hull, Sheffield, Newcastle, Cardiff or Liverpool. We've been wiped out on numerous Councils. In Wales we have become a virtual minority party and in Scotland we've been beaten by a man dressed as a penguin.
And God help us at the next General Election.
So why the bloody hell are we putting ourselves through this?
I'm not saying we haven't had our successes - the tax threshold changes have helped millions of people ( if the Tories had been in Government by themselves this tax cut would have gone on inheritance tax instead). We've made school funding fairer through the Pupil Premium, we are bringing forward legislation on Gay Marriage and we've stopped the Tories doing a hell of a lot of bad/bonkers stuff. But many of these changes can be (and probably will be) easily reversed and changed by the next Government. To get up in the morning and hold my head up high, I need something lasting that will make a difference and House of Lords is that something.
If we can't get something that is a) in all parties manifesto, b) has large public support (69% want reform only 5% want the status quo according to an April Yougov poll) and c) is in the Coalition Agreement then we really are powerless and being taken for a ride.
If we lose tonight it shown that the Government is unable to implement the Coalition document. Brutally the Tories have reneged on the deal. As a party we need to think long and hard about how we need to respond to this.
I do not think we should pull out of Government as lets face it we would be battered at the ensuing General Election (and on a personal note I've booked a Holiday in August which I really need!) but we need to be more calculating on what is in our best interest. The Administration will have to become a de-facto confidence and supply Government.
Tomorrow, if we lose we should come out and veto the Boundary Changes and the Data snooping laws. No Lib Dem wants the latter anyway and the Tories really want the former. This would be a statement of intent and would set a marker down for the rest of the 2 and a half years in Government.
If we do veto boundary changes, we will be accused of stopping an important reform of equalizing the size of constituency allowing everybodies vote to be equal.
Well actually votes under the FPTP cannot be equal. Nearly a million people voted for UKIP at the last General Election yet there is not a single UKIP member on the green benches. I'm not going to have a long rant about PR but this change will make very little difference to the fairness of the outcome of an election - and that is what really matters. In fact it will make it harder for many smaller parties to get their voice heard at all as the larger the constituency the harder it is for anyone bar the main two too win.
Secondly one of the big pluses of FPTP is the supposed link between MPs and Constituencies. It allows MPs to represent communities and argue for them. What the Boundary changes effectively does is destroy this notion. Communities are split apart, local authority boundaries are crossed, it will make it harder for MPs to effectively represent communities. As the Liberal Democrat believe in Community Politics this is surely something to hard for us to swallow without an improvement in another area of our democracy?
Dean, on Lib Dem Voice says that if we veto Boundary Changes we will have failed:
1. To demonstrate that coalitions are workable. - rubbish surely it's the Tories who are hell bent on destroying the coalition by not backing the coalition agreement.
2. That the lib Dems are a serious grown up party ready for government - Wrong - being a grown up party ready for Government means standing up for yourself and the people who elected you - rolling over and doing as your told is not part of being a grown up party!
So in summary if we lose tonight we can stop being NICE - time to be bitter and twisted, grow some balls and put ourselves first for once.
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