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6 of the most appalling coalition policies only made possible by the Lib Dems

By Tom Pride 
Everyone seems to have forgotten the fact, but Cameron failed to get an overall majority at the last election. So - in theory - he can't push through his party's manifesto and do whatever he wants.
 
So how come we've got the most right-wing government in living memory?
 
Because everything - but everything - the coalition has done and is doing has only been made possible by the Liberal Democrats. It is in their power to stop any decision made by Cameron and his cabinet of Eton cronies - it's just that they choose not to exercise that power.
 
These are the worst coalition policies (in my opinion) which have only been made possible by the Liberal Democrat Party:
 
1) Privatisation of the NHS
 
Top Tory Oliver Letwin famously said that the NHS would cease to exist within 5 years of a Tory government. And sure enough that's exactly what has happened. Except we don't have a Tory government. The Tory's plans to privatise the NHS were only made possible by the Lib Dems - who enthusiastically voted with the Tories to end Aneurin Bevan's 55 year old dream.
 
2) Tax cuts for the rich - tax increases for everyone else.
 
Nobody was all that surprised when Tory chancellor George Osborne announced tax cuts for the rich. After all, that's what Tory governments do. Except we're not supposed to have a Tory government. Osborne was only able to help his ultra-wealthy friends with support from the Lib Dems. And this was after they also allowed Osborne to raise VAT for everyone else. Because the ultra-rich don't pay UK VAT on their lobster dinners served on a luxury yacht off the coast of Florida. Do they?
 
3) Bedroom Tax
 
Even top Lib Dem Shirley Williams is now regretting this awful policy. So why did the Lib Dems support it? And why are they still supporting it? The Lib Dems could force the government to drop this today. But they don't. Why?
 
4) Secret Courts
 
The Liberal Democrats were supposed to be the party of civil liberties. So how come they supported the government's policy of allowing secret court hearings. You know - the Kafkaesque idea that a judge and a government representative can meet without you or your legal representative and decide if you're guilty or not of something without even having to tell you what you've been accused of. Not very liberal that. Or democratic. But supported by the so-called Liberal Democrats all the same.
 
5) Raising tuition fees, selling off school playing fields, cutting education budget
 
Obviously Tories want education to be expensive. It helps their own children if the best education can only be bought. Less competition than if all the plebs get to be well-educated too, you see? So why do we have a thoroughly Tory education policy in place? We don't actually have a Tory government. Or do we?
 
6) The demonisation of immigrants, the unemployed, the sick, the disabled and the poor
 
Tories like to go on and on and bloody on about how the country would be better off if we could only get rid of those waves of bloody immigrants swamping the country and stop all those bloody lazy scroungers on welfare. Obviously, the reality is that so-called welfare or benefit tourism is a myth and welfare fraud is around 0,6% of all benefit claims. Tax fraud on the other hand - including tax avoidance - is estimated to cost the UK hundreds of billions a year.
 
Tories never of course like to mention tax fraud, presumably in case they end up incriminating themselves and their mates.
 
But it's OK because fortunately we have a coalition government - we don't have an unconstrained right-wing Tory government in power attacking and demonising the weakest members of society while at the same time giving handouts to help their rich and powerful party donors.
 
Or do we?
 
This article was written by Tom Pride and it was first published in his blog: http://tompride.wordpress.com/ 
 
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