The Left’s Political Wet Dream: The Traffic Light Coalition

Published in

The Study

7 min readApr 17, 2015

This election is heating up, a 7-horse race to get coalition deals in what looks like the closest election since… the last one.

Having just finished watching the ‘opposition’ debate (read: the ‘Cameron didn't want to face direct questioning so we barred Clegg too’ debate), I'm faced with a clear solution to the nations problem of who to vote for: we need a left-wing Traffic Light Coalition. A Traffic Light Coalition is one where Labour, LibDems and the Green parties all form a coalition in government. What is it? Why should the left want it? Well first, lets look at the alternatives:

Why Not an Outright Labour Majority?

Well, the only two outright majorities are Labour or Conservative. Conservatives have shown time and time again they don’t support the majority (fracking, privatisation of the NHS, tuition fees, anti-fair voting methods). Labour are the better alternative, but they’re still a part of the establishment. Something needs to change in them to bring them back to the people, truly, rather than as a token vote for a less-harsh government for us all.

Why not include SNP, Plaid Cymru, or Sinn Fein?

Labour have ruled out working with SNP, making me hope they keep to that word and make the traffic light coalition more possible. But ultimately my philosophy is anti-nationalism. This means UKIP are bad, but even though SNP/PC/SF are left-leaning, they don’t truly care for English workers, they care about Scottish/Welsh/Irish people most. It’s understandable, but it’s the wrong way to go about it solving the problem (the Green Party, for instance, is pro-devolution, without nationalistic ideology). I just don’t think divisive ideology like nationalism is how we as a world (and country) work together for a brighter future. Sturgeon tonight claimed she’d help the rest of Britain, but ultimately she’s working for Scots and Scots alone. And where I have more in common with a pot-washer in Glasgow than I do with any of the Westminster lot, I’d like to think I’m not being lumped in with them as the nationalists carve out who they think they relate to enough to justify independence. Why’d I want parties who don’t appreciate that fact in their core creating laws? Why would any of us? This is just a short explanation, poorly explained compared with how I’d like to, but I’d like to focus on my alternative…

Why Labour, Liberal Democrats, and The Green Party?

Well, lets look at their collective potential*:

(The potential combination of the policies is below, if you want to skip individual lists)

Labour bring pedigree to the coalition, and the primary source of seats, we see them pledge:

Extra £2.5bn for NHS, largely paid for by a mansion tax on properties valued at over £2m. As well as repealing the Health and Social Care Act and cap the amount of profit private firms can make from the NHS at 5%
Scrap Bedroom tax
Raise minimum wage to more than £8ph by 2019
No raise to VAT (a pledge broken by Tories)
Access to childcare from 8am-6pm for parents of primary school children
Tuition fees down to £6k a year
50p tax rate for >£150k earners
Partially re-nationalise the rail system, as well as freezing rail fares
No additional borrowing
Push for new apprenticeships
200,000 new homes by 2020 with 3 year tenancy agreements
Fair pension reform (cut relief for higher earner pensioners, raise with or above inflation)
Voting age lowered to 16
Ban zero-hour contract work

Lib Dems: The ones with knowledge of coalition government, and the perfect middle ground between Labour and Greens to keep the Traffic Light Coalition together

Increase tax-free allowance to £12,500
Invest £8bn in the NHS a year by 2020. Equal care for mental & physical health
Yellow Card system before benefits are withdrawn. As well as a benefit raise cap at 1%p.a.
Reduce Trident, only sell arms to non-human rights abusing nations
Like Labour, referendum on EU only if transferral of real sovereign power were requested.
Half EU greenhouse gasses by 2030
Raise income threshold to £12.5K
raise £14bn taxing Corporations and wealthy earners by eliminating loopholes, plus £130m from taxing non-doms, and another £1bn from taxing banking corps.
Bring in light-rail schemes in urban areas, whilst promoting public transport.
Eliminate deficit by 2017/18
Expand apprenticeships
End imprisonment for drug-possession crimes
Build 300,000 new homes
Raise rent-able housing standards
Plant 0.75m trees a year
Voting lowered to 16

The Green Party: Newest kid on the block, with the biggest dreams

End austerity and restore the public sector, creating jobs that pay at least a living wage. End privatisation of the National Health Service
Build 500,000 new homes, as well as bringing in 350,000 empty homes back into use
Completely renationalise the rail system cutting fares by 10% immediately
Increase NHS spending by £12bn a year, full funded and public, and not for profit — whilst increasing attention to mental health
Axe Bedroom tax
Scrap tuition fees (and forgive previous debt). I believe this is made up for by having a graduate tax.
Scrap Trident entirely (saving £100bn total)
EU referendum, but also with the aim to remain and reform (for example, ending US-EU free trade TTIP) Whilst promoting freedom of movement into the UK, integrating more into the EU
60p robin hood tax on the >£150k earners, raising another £30bn a year cutting tax dodging (closing loopholes and such)
£8.10 minimum wage, to be raised to £10 by 2020, whilst banning 0-hour contracts, with a maximum 35 hour work week
decriminalise cannabis and treat addiction as a health issue, not criminal.
Rent cap, as well as 5-year tenancies whilst abolishing right-to-buy homes.
Ban fracking, lower emissions to 10% of 1990 levels by 2030, and phase out fossil fuels as well as nuclear energy.
Voting age lowered to 16
Bring in Proportional Representation
Devolution, both national and at local government level.

With these things in mind, this brings me to introduce a potential result if we had…

The Traffic Light Coalition Policies:

Proportional representation (Greens, and LibDems c.2010 — should they stick to principle>re-election chances)
Larger partial re-nationalization of the rail system, with at least a freeze to fares. (Green/Labour) with increase in construction of lines (LibDem)
3–5 year tenancy agreements, rent reform. (Coalition)
Voting age lowered to 16 (Coalition)
General EU reform, Politically, and environmentally, with a referendum if major power is transferred to Brussels. (Coalition, primarily Green/Lab)
Between £2.5bn-£12bn increase NHS spending -LibDem’s proposed £8bn might make a meeting ground. With between 0–5% cap on profit for private business, protection to keep the NHS public, and a bigger focus on mental health. (Coalition)
Scrap bedroom tax. (Lab/Green)
Minimum wage rise to between £8–10 per hour, by 2019–2020, with a ban to zero-hour contracts, potential cap at working week say 45hrs. (Lab/Green, with LibDem mediation here)
Student Tuition Fees reduced to 4–6k a year, with previous students being forgiven extra debt (Coalition— A soon-to-graduate can dream right?)
A push for new apprenticeships (Labour/LibDem)
No VAT raise (Labour)
1%p.a. welfare raise cap (LibDems)
Reduction of Trident, and hopefully only selling arms to non-human rights abusing nations (LibDems/Green — Labour reluctantly agree)
200–500 thousand new homes (a mix of building new constructions, and re-opening old houses)-again LibDem 300k middle ground may be settled on- by 2020 (Coalition)
Fracking banned, as well as 750,000 trees a year planted. And a move away from fossil fuels (LibDem/Green)
Increase tax-free income to £12,500 (LibDems)
raise £14–30bn taxing Corporations and wealthy earners by eliminating loopholes, plus £130m from taxing non-doms, and another £1bn from taxing banking corps. (LibDem/Green)
Deficit eliminated by end of government, with no additional borrowing (Lab/LibDem)
Pension reform, highest earners lose some state pension (Lab)
50-60p tax on earnings >£150k (Lab/Green)
potential Robin Hood tax (Green)
New parents receiving some level of free child care, with a small increase to child benefits (Lab/LibDem, then Green)

And that, that is the kind of parliament I could get behind. I don’t know the full extent of how well those work to balance the book, but they at least proivide Britain with an anti-austerity lifestyle. With fairer taxation, and better releif to ordinary citizens.

Is it Possible?

Well, maybe — if I'm lucky. a majority coalition would need 326 seats, some sources put Labour are on to win 276 seats, Lib Dems to win 26, and greens to only win 1 seat — making it a total of 303 seats, and 23 off a majority. To be optimistic, and hope LibDems claw some seats back, Labour extend their lead, and greens win a few more seats, it wouldn't be impossible for this to occur — especially if this thinking catches on and sites like voteswap gain momentum, with some tactical voting probably being necessary, we could find ourselves with a real, left, british government for the next 5 years.

These are just my thoughts, and hopes, on the matter. Feel free to share and comment with your thoughts.

Jack Moran.

*Link to the BBC manifesto site, obviously I can't list everything here, or combine everything. So enjoy my snippet, and research others.