Clegg has not made the mistakes of MacDonald

THERE were flaws in Mark Stuart’s article “Warning for Clegg in fate of Ramsay MacDonald and putting nation first” (Yorkshire Post, August 29).

Ramsay MacDonald’s fundamental error was not his formation of a coalition in August 1931 but his failure to form one in the light of the hung parliament following the general election of May 30, 1929.

Had he negotiated immediately with Lloyd George and the Liberals, it is likely that a coalition government could have implemented Keynesian economic policies that might well have averted the economic crisis that forced MacDonald into abandoning, and being abandoned by, his own party.

There are hardly any parallels between Ramsay MacDonald and Nick Clegg. MacDonald split his party; Clegg has kept his united, even despite many tensions. MacDonald went into the 1931 election with a new party in an electoral pact with the Conservatives and some Liberals. Clegg has been absolutely firm that the Liberal Democrats will fight the next general election as an independent party.

There is no doubt that the economic circumstances of 2010 were the worst possible moment for the Liberal Democrats to enter into government, but it was crucial to put the national interest before party gain. Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats have judged that the country will see the benefits of their participation in government in an improved economic situation by the time of the next election in 2015.

Clearly there are great electoral risks, but at least the electorate cannot say, as I have heard on the doorsteps for decades, “you’re all the same when you get in,” and “you put party before country”.