Now For The Deal

Peter Hitchens writes:

What we know of the Clegg-Cameron pact suggests that it is a major victory for the Liberal Democrats, made easier by the fact that David Cameron is himself by inclination a liberal, and offered no serious resistance to many of Nicholas Clegg's demands. On the contrary, I believe he welcomed those demands, as an excuse to dump policies he never liked in the first place. The speed and ease with which this deal was made exposes the unspeakable truth, that there really is no substantial, principled difference between the leaderships of the major political parties. The only problems arise when the backbenchers and activists, who still believe in something, need to be consulted.

I am faintly disappointed that nobody tried the obvious way out of our hung parliament - a Conservative-Labour coalition which would have demonstrated even more clearly that Mr Cameron is the true heir to Blair. The Tories could have insisted that Labour got rid of Gordon Brown, and Labour could have demanded the head of George Osborne.

The reaction - immediately and in the long term - of properly conservative members and supporters of the Tory Party is the thing to watch. If they submit and allow themselves to be co-opted, then all immediate hope is gone and political and social conservatism is dead in this country. We can all go off and keep bees.

But if they offer a principled resistance, one which in my view must lead inevitably to an actual split and breakaway, then there will be hope.

Those who still delude themselves that the leadership of the Tory Party contains any serious conservative elements should have noticed the giggling, beaming face of Oliver Letwin looming about the place during the negotiations which produced this, the first Liberal government of my lifetime. His presence was the key. Mr Letwin is simply not a conservative on any important issue, and is refreshingly frank about this, which is why he is not normally allowed out in public. But of course his frank liberalism was extremely useful during these talks.

William Hague, on the other hand, was performing his normal role as walking, talking figleaf, hoping to conceal the horrid reality from the sensitive gaze of actual conservatives with his macho northern bluntness. The post of Foreign Secretary in the modern age is pretty worthless, despite the grandeur of an office which is big enough to contain most people's houses. Prime Ministers run what foreign policy there is these days, especially once their domestic programmes sink into the mud (as they always do). Mr Hague knows this. He has been gracefully sidelined, with his own permission. Just as Labour used to have a 'Keeper of the Cloth Cap', a role well-performed by John Prescott, the Tories these days have to have a Tender of the Thatcherite Flame. It's Mr Hague. His job is to reassure the poor bemused members, while acceding to Mr Cameron's plans. So much for him.

Now for the deal (insofar as I have seen it at the time of writing, late on Wednesday morning).

The supposed 'red lines' of Tory policy are pretty insignificant. The EU has most of what it wants from us and can obtain plenty more by salami-slicing, impenetrable late-night deals (in which Britain loses another piece of independence under anaesthetic) whose implications emerge months later, and by Qualified Majority Voting, without the need for any new treaties.

The abandoned Lib Dem 'amnesty' for illegal immigrants was at least honest. We will continue to have an unstated amnesty for such people, under which they stay here in large numbers because nobody can be bothered to remove them. Trident is a Cold War weapon designed for a task we no longer need to perform. Sooner or later, probably in a big Defence Review, we will opt for a deterrent which has some relevance to the post-1990 world.

The accelerated reduction of the deficit is not specially conservative in itself, and may quite simply be mistaken (some reputable economists think so), but if George Osborne wants to insist on it, then he will also take the blame if it goes wrong. Which, if it happens, will not hugely distress many people in his own party.

The unspecified meaningless 'cap' on non-EU immigration remains a gesture to public opinion, not backed by any real intention to act.

An issue which would once have arisen - the Liberal Democrats' unshakeable commitment to stamping out academic selection in schools - has of course been killed off already. The Tories too now publicly dismiss all prospect of restoring the only measure which would save state education. Their famous 'free schools', if any ever open, will either be bog-standard comprehensives or postcode-based socially selective fake comprehensives, just like plenty which already exist and are heavily patronised by egalitarian politicians.

The appointments, trickling out as I write, are fascinating. Theresa May has long been a favourite of this weblog because of her openly expressed enthusiasm for Harriet Harman's policies, her unexplained U-turn on all-women shortlists and her weird attempt to claim she'd had a comprehensive schooling when in fact her grammar school had been turned into a comprehensive over her head. She combines the Home Office with a new Cabinet position as 'Minister for Women and Equality' which can be loosely described as 'Secretary of State for Political Correctness'. Harriet Harman lives on in this Torberal Government under another name and hairstyle.

Kenneth Clarke, as Lord Chancellor and Minister of Justice, is the most potent remaining representative of the Tories' 1970s liberal, social democratic wing still in circulation. Other figures of this sort, such as Douglas Hurd, Michael Heseltine and John Major are much in evidence as approving godparents of the Cameron project. But Mr Clarke doggedly keeps on in active politics, a rare grown-up in a government of inexperienced and callow young men. I actually rather like Mr Clarke, as do many people. (He is funny and convivial, his enthusiasm for jazz is genuine, and his knowledge of it real, and he tends to tell the truth in preference to spin. He took it in good part when I once tried to present him with a Labour Party membership card).

But it seems that Mr Cameron's always rather unconvincing hostility to the Human Rights Act will shrivel away to nothing if Mr Clarke is in charge of this area of policy. Apparently the Liberal Democrats have demanded an end to such talk anyway. And - as in all important matters - got what they wanted.

It is also clear that the Torberal Government will be fanatically committed to Warmism. The Environment Secretary is going to be 'Secretary of State for Climate Change' as well. Rational sceptics of this fundamentalist pseudo-religion will be unwelcome in this Cabinet, and probably denounced as 'deniers'. Which means that this country will now be moving at an accelerating rate towards a major electricity shortage within ten years or so.