Top Trump

An end to the old politics?

Peter Black has now got in on the act too over on his blog where he stresses his experience in such matters and that the UK Liberal Democrats will have learnt from their experiences in similar processes here and in Scotland. Thank goodness for that. Because there is much for UK politicians to learn from coalition building experiences in the devolved nations, not least the Liberal Democrats themselves, as the author openly acknowledges.

Peter makes an interesting point about keeping options open, and acknowledges that:

The second rule is to keep your options open so as to strengthen your negotiating hand. Alas that is one tactic that was not adopted by the Welsh Liberal Democrats back in 2007. It looks like Nick Clegg understands where we went wrong.

All of which I agree with and, indeed, blogged about last Summer when I coined the mnemonic TRUMP TO WIN. My column then was an attempt to try and codify some of the key features that are needed to bring a coalition from impregnation to delivery.
Trust
Reward
Unity
Momentum
Policies
Track-Record
Options
Westminster
Ideology
Numbers

For the first few months of WalesHome.org, it was amongst our best read articles and prompted some real attention on other sites, even migrating into print.

Probably worth another read in the light of current circumstances…