Dear Grant,
I really enjoyed your interview in yesterday’s Times (£) and hope you’ll soon get your Nando’s Black Card! I can’t believe that David Beckham deserves one more than you.
I’m glad to hear that Conservative MPs are likely to get a vote on any coalition deal that might be necessary after the next election. That’s at least how I read your answer to the question posed by my Times colleagues Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson. May I encourage the party to go further and also give all paid-up members a vote? Because a) they deserve one, and b) they can be trusted with one…
Paul Goodman and Peter Hoskin have already recommended giving party members a vote on any coalition deal. It seems a proper way of recognising their contribution to the party – and it would go much beyond the traditional warm but not necessarily meaningful words of “thank you” that are uttered in their direction.
There is another reason why I hope you and David Cameron will think about this extension of party democracy. One of the reasons that Nick Clegg has not suffered defections or other big wobbles during this parliament was that he consulted his whole party on the Coalition Agreement. He explained what he was doing and then they endorsed his deal with Mr Cameron. Democratically. Because of that “buy in” they’ve held together much more happily than if there never had been a consultation. David Cameron could enjoy a happier second term if his programme for government is similarly endorsed. Given the party membership’s record of loyalty to previous leaders I would even predict that the grassroots are more likely to endorse any deal proposed by the prime minister than the parliamentary party.
I’d be grateful for your thoughts,
With best wishes, Tim
PS I’m also fed up of being told by Liberal Democrats that their party is more democratic than ours!