CNJ Comment - Leaders’ cop out, but the voters are making progress

Published: 29 April, 2010

“WHAT we need is a cop on the Wall Street beat,” warned a ­Congress chairman in Washington on Tuesday at the Goldman Sachs inquiry.
In Britain we need an equivalent force – an Inland Revenue squad – to tighten controls over the City and the big banks. Hints about this are being made by Vince Cable but he stops short on the small print.
At least he airs the subject – more than can be said either for Nick Clegg, Gordon Brown or Dave Cameron.
While people accept that economies are inevitable in the coming years, what galls them is that the bankers – the authors of the crisis – are being let off the hook.
A deception is being practised by the main parties and the media – headlines, interviews, photo ­opportunities, they are all about fluffy manifesto promises mingled with chilly warnings about the ­coming cuts. Hardly a word about the banks who caused the crisis.
Here there is a widening ­disconnect between the people and the political machines.
Higher corporation taxes – not necessarily punitive – on the banks, plus tight scrutiny of accounts, would yield several billion pounds, enough to offset some of Britain’s deficit.
But this is an option that dare not speak its name among the main political leaders. They are too enmeshed with the City to dare challenge it.
Here Obama leads the way.
There are also other ways of ­finding billions, apart from ­“efficiency savings”.
Again, silence from the big boys.
Clegg proffered a partial solution  in the abandonment of the Trident project, saving nearly £100billion over the next few years.
All Gordon Brown could say was: “Get real, Nick!”
But Clegg – admittedly hesitant of developing his thesis – is articulating a widespread public opinion.
Defence policies predicated around Trident and other nuclear weaponry have pulled down our economy for decades. They arose out of our imperial past.
Other heavyweight economies in Europe survive without nuclear weapons. All shelter behind the Nato shield.
Yet Nick Clegg has burst the political bubble.
Where does this leave the people?
In many constituencies, there is a growing movement towards tactical voting on a far greater scale than in previous elections.
This can be seen in Hampstead and Kilburn where many traditional Labour voters – some were once well-known party members – are publicly supporting the Lib Dem candidate Ed Fordham.
If this were replicated all over the nation, it could lead to a much ­larger Lib Dem representation in Parliament – and then what?
Is it not possible that the Lib Dems would join the Tories to form a coalition government? As they did in Camden four years ago.
Many viewers of the TV debates may not be aware that Lib Dem-Tory coalitions have ruled several local authorities since the elections four years ago. Fears of such a ­centre or right-of-centre government seem to cause less debate among a strange growing alliance of Old Labour and Lib Dem supporters – it is called the Progressive Left.
If, in the next parliament, a weakened Labour Party fell victim to a Blairite takeover, could this lead to a break-up of the party, and the emergence of a new party, partly comprising the Progressive Left?
This has happened in Germany, and is developing in France.
Could it happen here?