Sitting down and sorting it out
Intriguing argument from Jo Swinson on the wireless anent the wisdom of forming a coalition.
Intriguing but, partly, specious.
The Scottish Lib Dems deputy leader said that, in ordinary walks of life, folk generally had to get on with their colleagues.
In the workplace, for example, those with a different outlook on matters had to set those differences aside for the common good.
True, true. But, generally, the IT Department and Finance, for example, don't run preceding and subsequent campaigns suggesting that the members of the other lot should be kicked out.
Lib Dem and Tory politicians do exactly that. Indeed, Nick Clegg is rightly taking pains at his party's Liverpool federal conference to stress that the LibDems are a distinctive organisation who fought the Tories at the last UK election and will do so, vigorously, at the next.
It is not, therefore, purely the existence of coalition that is causing strain for the Lib Dems.
It is the contrast with previous statements: for example, with regard to VAT or the speed of spending cuts.
'Sort it out'
Where Ms Swinson is on surer ground is her assertion that folk generally like politicians to co-operate.
True, again. But, customarily, the popular desire for collaboration is inchoate.
They want politicians to "sit down together and sort it out" without always specifying what "it", the end objective, might be.
They want politicians to work together to do nice things, to make the sun shine.
Not to accelerate specific spending cuts, however much they may agree, in very general terms, that constraint is required.
So the LibDems face a tough period ahead, particularly in Scotland where the next electoral test is scheduled for May, the Holyrood elections.
Mr Clegg and his colleagues have three broad messages, each with varying degrees of potency: that the coalition was right and imperative, given the electoral arithmetic; that the people would not have forgiven the Lib Dems had they walked away from the challenge; and that the financial and fiscal medicine, although hard to swallow, will ultimately revive the patient.
His party colleagues must hope that the voters follow his syllogism to the conclusion.
I'm 
Comments
or to comment.