Well there you go, I admit it, the truth is out!

I can almost feel the local Labour hierarchy reaching for their laptops/mobiles in a fit of ”we told you so, they’re all tories really”, despatches to whoever is prepared to listen.

So perhaps I should clarify a bit before they start writing the Labour Rose headlines. Just one of my friends is a Conservative party member and lives in Devon. But I must confess to having friends and family friends who are either conservative by nature/tradition or yes, even vote Conservative. And, as a councillor, I have many friendly contacts in the community who are conservative supporters nationally, just as I have a large number of labour supporting contacts. And very nice people they are too!

Now the trouble with the current Labour party is that they find that all difficult to accept, they still insist on fighting the class warfare of the early twentieth century, they still see Labour and Labour alone as standing up for the working man, the Tories as upper class business backers and the Liberals as either misguided pseudo socialists or Tories in disguise!

The world has moved on, and although, frankly, I don’t care if the Labour party nationally or locally continues to behave like that, the people they purport to represent have moved on, and have greater aspiration, expectation and awareness.

Now I understand that in confrontational politics of the 20th century it was always a case of them and us, good versus evil, right and wrong, in the manner that politics was portrayed, but over the past 15-20 years the spectrum has blurred.

But politics is now more issue based than ever, voters pick and choose which candidates they will back, more and more on the issues that they represent almost as much as the party label. Voters party allegiance has weakened in favour of their personal manifesto of issues, policies and how they see the world. We now live in a world of political “pick and mix”.

That’s why there is nothing intrinsically wrong with coalitions, there is nothing wrong with alliances and in general politicians of different parties working together. In fact time and time again on the doorsteps during the General Election voters were telling me just that.

They key (as ever) is in the detail. That’s why it was so critical that the Coalition Government published details of the policy agreement.

That is why Labour are mistaken in posturing to oppose oppose oppose the cuts and spending reviews that the Coalition will be considering. We need positive, constructive opposition that’s prepared to work to solve the problems this country faces, not hurl bricks from the sidelines and run away from tough decisions. 

There have always been liberals in all parties, but personally I decided that I should join THE Liberal party in Britain. As a liberal I am tolerant of other beliefs, faiths, views, races and lifestyles etc etc etc. That’s perhaps why I have friends who support the Conservatives and Labour parties as well as the Lib Dems. 

If the Lib Dems in coalition help break down further the political barriers to cross party cooperation then that in itself will be a major achievement. An achievement that won’t get any headlines or TV coverage but will over the course of time change politics for ever – for the better.

But I doubt that Labour could handle that – they of course would like to keep things simple, straightforward, red and blue, good v.bad, outmoded, unrepresentative, maintaining class division, living in the past, fighting for the past.