This is a guest post by Prateek Buch.

As the nation prepares to go to the polls in just a few weeks’ time, this week’s Guardian Politics Weekly podcast, recorded live at Manchester University, took a snapshot of the political landscape as seen by our friends in the North. Whether it was from the three Guardian panellists, from the members of the audience or from interviews with the public, strong opinions emerged on the issues that look set to dominate the public discourse in the coming weeks – and listening to these contributions I saw a theme emerging.

John Harris began by documenting, rightly so given my experience of growing up in Manchester, that too much political rhetoric simply bypasses those in the great Northern cities who would rather hear politicians discuss the nitty gritty of housing or working conditions at the lower end of the jobs market. Michael White spoke of the pernicious effect of taking the concerns of those living in safe seats for granted – that the fixation with 800,000 or so voters in marginal seats leaves the needs of the majority behind. Polly Toynbee’s description of a ‘defunct electoral system that drives towards idiocy, with the crassest posters and stupidest slogans’ reiterated this. Indeed, Toynbee even wished for a hung Parliament, such that electoral reform could finally get under way.

When asked for what they would like to see on the political agenda in place of the empty point-scoring usually on show, many members of the audience and those interviewed out on the streets had many eminently sensible suggestions. We heard some very specific demands of our next government; greater regulation of the banking industry, policies that would get people back into work, making the tax system more progressive, scrapping ID cards and dismantling the database state, instituting green taxes so that the polluter pays and so on. Back with the panel, these ideas were added to – Harris spoke of the ‘absolute no-brainer’ of scrapping Trident, whilst Toynbee detailed the need to close loopholes in the tax regime that mean ’32 out of [Britain’s] 54 billionaires pay no [UK] tax.’ Manchester having a large student population, it perhaps wasn’t surprising that tuition fees was also a live issue. At this point a theme became apparent – a theme that connects policies being demanded by voter and pundit alike.

On the surface, the theme could be said to be one of a renewed covenant between the government and the governed – that through electoral reform, and by better regulation of the financial services sector, government should institute policies that benefit the many not the few. That instead of the macho Labour and Conservative rhetoric of how much to cut and when, politicians ought to discuss, in Harris’ words, ‘the right sort of spending cuts.’ Instead of stringing voters along by promising fiscal magic trick – cutting spending and preserving current levels of services by slashing the fabled ‘back-offices’ – the public needs to be weaned off the idea of a free lunch, of ‘Scandinavian public services with American levels of taxation.’ And then it hit me – as Michael White remarked that for the poor in the USA, tax isn’t all that low – that the theme I was hearing emerge was in fact twofold. Firstly, what the public and the pundits wanted more than anything was fairness – in the tax system, in the economy and in politics. And secondly, that all the policies mooted are, bar none, already being heavily promoted– by the Liberal Democrats.

This isn’t to say that Nick Clegg and Vince Cable could wave their hands and instantly pull us all out of trouble, nor that every Lib Dem policy would be a surefire hit with all voters. Nonetheless, one thing is clear: whether it’s by tying together housing and economic renewal – instituting a warm homes programme and renovating 250,000 empty homes to alleviate pressure on social housing wait lists; or by introducing radical electoral reform to rid politics of the malaise embodied by the expenses debacle; or by introducing fairer taxes – closing preposterous loopholes for the mega-rich to lift 3.6 million low earners out of tax altogether; or indeed cutting spending on that which we can do without (Trident, ID cards and tax credits to the wealthy amongst others) to preserve that which we rely upon all the more heavily in tough times, and that too only once the economic conditions are right; by these measures and more the Lib Dems would undoubtedly govern in a way the Manchester audience and the wider public would appreciate.

So I finish with a plea, or three. To political commentators across the country – it’s time you recognised that the Blue-Red merry-go-round of old politics simply won’t deliver the fairness and renewal the nation is crying out for, time you gave the Lib Dems more than just a passing glance in your coverage (there were cursory nods to the party in the podcast to be fair, largely from Harris who described Vince Cable as a national hero). To the Lib Dems – and I speak as a member – we must recognise that in the coming weeks our policies will resonate with a receptive electorate, so let’s get our core messages heard loud and clear. And to those people as yet undecided about who to give your vote to – or whether to turn out at all; last time round, nearly one in four voters chose the Liberal Democrats, and yet only 10% of the seats in Parliament ended up turning yellow. So if you want democratic reform, if you believe that a tax regime that allows billionaires to contribute a smaller proportion of their worth to the Treasury than their cleaners needs drastic upheaval, if you want every child to get a fair start in life regardless of the accident of birth, and if you believe that a fairer, more sustainable economy can be created from the ashes of the discredited model we’ve just seen crash and burn, then don’t just ask for it – vote for it.

Reader comments

1. Liberal Conspiracy

   Getting off the Blue-Red Merry-go-round http://bit.ly/bPrY2d

2. Therese

   RT @libcon Getting off the Blue-Red Merry-go-round http://bit.ly/bPrY2d

3. Prateek Buch

   by me >>RT @libcon: Getting off the Blue-Red Merry-go-round http://bit.ly/bPrY2d

4. Adrian Giddings

   Getting off the Blue-Red Merry-go-round: http://is.gd/aSYdP

5. topsy_top20k_en

   Getting off the Blue-Red Merry-go-round http://bit.ly/bPrY2d

6. uberVU - social comments

   Social comments and analytics for this post…

   This post was mentioned on Twitter by libcon: Getting off the Blue-Red Merry-go-round http://bit.ly/bPrY2d...

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.