The sacrifice of the few on behalf of the many

To paraphrase Machiavelli, "For the Prince/Tyrant to stay in power, he must reward those who support him and weaken those who oppose him." In modern democratic language this would be "Maintain your core vote".

When historians look back at governments, they always focus upon what those governments achieved, what lasting legacy they left as a result of their time in power. Some governments are more memorable than others. I cannot help thinking that unless something dramatic changes in the next two years, the current government is not likely to leave much of a legacy beyond being a memorable coalition that muddled along during a severe economic depression.

The fundamental issue is that I cannot look at any of the government policies and think that they will help much. The language has been very much of austerity and surely successfully fixing or breaking the economy would leave a memorable legacy? In reality, I can only feel that the current period of government will be remembered as one of retrenchment.

By this I mean that just about every policy implemented by this government feels like it is aimed at removing something from most people. Welfare benefits, retirement age, pensions, wages, employee rights, right to privacy and so on. All the policies seeking to address these fundamental issues seem to take something away from the population at large. By unpleasant coincidence, many of these retrenchments benefit large corporations who have lobbied government or made political donations. While this may benefit a cosy elite, it does nothing to shore up the core vote or make the population want to re-elect a government that it thinks has taken so much away that was previously accepted as 'a right'. The equal marriage law is an exception and there are already hints that this surprising drive for this law by the Conservative is a desperate attempt to counter this perception, even at the cost of core party support.

No wonder the 'swivel eyed loons' are so strident, they themselves must feel the general frustration and while they may have some ideological affinity with the policies designed to pare back the state, they can also all too easily see that the few are making uncomfortable decisions not to the benefit of the many. Those politicians making the decisions benefit in the short to medium term, but those that come after them will suffer the consequences as seen by the rapid increase in voter disenfranchisement.

The coalition government is breaking one of Machiavelli's key rules, shore up your support and undermine your opponents. Labour know how to obey this rule and recent history shows that they will do this even at the cost of good government policies. Helping lobbyists and big businesses will not get the coalition votes, but then they will be in the money anyway so why should they care? Unlike the Princes and tyrants of Machiavelli's time, being toppled from power in a democratic society is unlikely to be fatal. It is a bit like those chief executive contracts, you get a golden handout from being kicked out rather than suffering some form of punishment. What a shame Ministers cannot be motivated by long term share options!