Lib Dem fury at Cameron could trigger early election

LIBERAL DEMOCRAT Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, is desperate to head off a stampede of Lib Dem lemmings who are so furious with Cameron's use of the EU veto they want to bring down the coalition and trigger a general election.

Alexander, who is the Tories’ closest ally among the Lib Dems in the Cabinet, was pressed repeatedly by John Humphrys on the Today programme over last night’s outburst by Baroness (Jenny) Tonge, who told Radio 5 Live that the Lib Dems had been “sold a pup” and “enough is enough” - in effect, “let's call the whole thing off”.

What's the point in propping up the coalition, asked Humphrys, echoing any number of Lib Dems who are having to swallow their pride over tuition fees being raised against their wishes, NHS reform that was in no one’s manifesto and the loss of their two greatest Liberal crusades – electoral reform and putting Britain back into the heart of European affairs.

Alexander flapped and fluffed, and insisted that there were many things the Lib Dems were delivering through the coalition, such as the “pupil premium plan”. It hardly sounded convincing, especially after the weekend TV performances of Nick Clegg and former Lib Dem leader Lord (Paddy) Ashdown.

The latter could barely conceal his contempt for Cameron when he was interviewed on Sky TV. Clegg was more measured on The Andrew Marr Show but nevertheless managed to infuriate Tory MPs by saying Cameron has made Britain a pygmy in the world and risked making us look “irrelevant” in the eyes of Washington.

"There's nothing bulldog about Britain hovering somewhere in the mid-Atlantic, not standing tall in Europe, not being taken seriously in Washington," Clegg said, warning that the UK was "retreating further to the margins" of Europe.

He also told Marr that if he had been at the summit, then "of course things would have been different". Why? Because "I'm not under the same constraints from my parliamentary party that clearly David Cameron is."

Simon Heffer, writing on the Right Minds blog at the Daily Mail website, says if the Lib Dems continue to whine and whinge, "Mr Cameron should not hesitate to call his bluff. An election four weeks on Thursday would concentrate everyone’s mind wonderfully, and remove the tiresome Nick Clegg from our horizons  for good."

The Hefferlump has forgotten that under recently introduced rule changes, Cameron can't call a early general election – before the five-year period is up - without getting a motion through Parliament first, with a two-thirds majority.

But Heffer’s right to say that both the Tories and some Kamikaze Liberal Democrats are so fed up with the coalition that Cameron's use of the veto in Brussels could push them over the edge - the Lib Dem lemmings to their own destruction while the Tories soar on an upward wind of popularity.

A Populus poll for today's Times shows 57 per cent of respondents believe the PM was right to use his veto. Only 14 per cent opposed the move.

The truth is, the idea of an election before 2015 was inconceivable a week ago. Now it is a real possibility. Cameron will never be as popular again and the pressure from his backbenchers to dump the dead weight of the unhappy Lib Dems could become unstoppable.

On the Lib Dem side, there is enough fury at Cameron that it might take only the resignation, say, of Business Secretary Vince Cable (whom Baroness Tonge urged to quit) to split the coalition and trigger an election.

No one wants a general election in January-February, as Heffer would have it, but the odds are certainly against this coalition surviving the full five years. ·