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Brown's big tent risks 'one party state', warns Cable |
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LibDem deputy leader Vince Cable says sucking out opposition is threat to democracy at Fabian/CentreForum fringe event at Labour conference.
Gordon Brown's 'big tent' approach to politics risks creating a one party state, Liberal Democrat deputy leader Vince Cable told a Fabian/CentreForum fringe meeting at the Labour conference.
"I am concerned about what I would regard as big tentism - this attempt to get everybody into the same fold. I think it is an attempt to create - in the nicest possible way - a one-party state. Gordon Brown's model is the Swedish Social Democracy of the twentieth century where, with one or two brief interruptions, the same party was in power', said Cable.
Cable compared Brown to Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta, for whom he had worked as an advisor.
'My first job was working for Kenyatta. He was one of the more enlightened African leaders at that time. He also spoke about the big tent. It was about sucking out of any opposition parties. It is superficalliy attractive – but it destroys any opposition', said Cable.
Cable said the two parties shared a progressive tradition and progressive goals. But differences in how to achieve these were rooted in philosophical differences. Both parties believed in a belief that the state has a role in income distribution and the provision of public services and differed fundamentally from the Conservatives on this. But LibDem 'scepticism about the belief in the centralised state to do good' and the belief in a more decentralised approach was not shared by Labour, said Cable.
He advocated that the two parties should work together on issues where they can agree, including further constitutional reform. Cable's comments suggest that senior LibDems are open to the possibility of supporting the Alternative Vote, a system which has been backed by Jack Straw and other senior Labour figures.
'I advisedly say electoral reform rather than proportional representation. We both have an interest in the modernisation of the electoral system, whatever form it takes', said Cable. |
