The reshuffle: the talking point of the last few days. I’m sure we all feel a bit angry and flustered after the Tory side was announced – Hunt at health, Miller as equalities. It really could not have been much less liberal. Our side, though, may at first appear entirely less interesting, and far more acceptable. There were some great moves in the reshuffle, sure. Jo Swinson as an Undersecretary of State. David Laws is back. This reshuffle, though, has cut out something essential to the Liberal Democrats: our internationalism. Lib Dems gone from FCO. No Lib Dems in the MOD. One minister, Lynne Featherstone, in DFID. And Lynne’s briefing (at the time of writing) has still not been an announced. This reshuffle represents an almost complete retreat from international affairs.
Internationalism is one of the things the Lib Dems pride ourselves on: our attitude to the European Union is really quite distinctive amongst mainstream politics, we work closely with our sister parties, and our opposition to the Iraq war was certainly amongst the most vocal. Foreign Affairs is not a fairly ‘non-partisan’ area, as I had it put to me. There are huge divergences in Liberal Democrat and Conservative policy here, and now we have absolutely no one fighting our corner, it seems. Even Lynne in DFID isn’t really going to have much of a say: when behind-closed-door discussion takes place on the European Union, the Eurozone crisis, our involvement in NATO, renewal of Trident, and our relationship with the US, particularly with the upcoming Presidential elections, and other big issues at the moment, DFID are hardly the most involved.
Clegg has done, and will presumably continue, to take a keen interest in international affairs. Our only point of influence at the moment it seems. But he’s still Deputy Prime Minister. He may have influence but his interest and involvement has to encompass… well… everything. To even consider for a moment that he and his team will be able to follow international events and issues closely enough that this government’s foreign policy will have a proper Lib Dem stamp on it is naive, and downright ridiculous.
Internationalism is, to me anyway, a key part of our liberalism. It feels like we’ve given up a little bit more of ourselves in this reshuffle. Maybe just too much…
So: why the withdrawal? Is there anything that can justify it? Is it because foreign affairs isn’t necessarily a huge vote winner? Ahem, Mr Clegg… Elections to the European Parliament are just around the corner, in 2014. How exactly can we base our platform here, for international elections, on having practically given up our involvement in government foreign policy? If there is way, it escapes me.
Whatever the reasoning behind this move, it definitely requires an explanation. And I just can’t see how there is one.
* Harriet Ainscough is a former International Officer of Liberal Youth.