I don’t know if it was David Laws himself, or an enthusiastic sub-editor with a sense of humour, but it did somewhat strike an odd chord for the title of his article in the Guardian today to echo Margaret Thatcher’s famous “There is no alternative!”.
But I’m here to praise David Laws, not to bury him! Well, kinda. I do find it rather daft that Tory commentators are falling over themselves to claim that “Orange Bookers” like Laws will now consider defecting to them. Laws may be to the right of the Lib Dems, but Cameron has emphatically ruled out the policy that got Laws into so much heat in the first place.
It’s telling though that senior Tory commentators consider their own party so week at the top that they need Lib Dem brains to make them electable.
While I have respect for Laws as a front bencher who does his main job, I am confused as to why he constantly tries to blur the message in favour of his minority policy interests.