Why do we need coalition government?

I joined the SDP to “break the mould” of British politics. A succession of Labour and Conservative governments coming from deep partisan positions was doing nothing for the economic success of the United Kingdom nor to build the kind of society I wanted to live in.  Coalition politics has had various degrees of success across Europe, but at least it has the potential to ensure that the loonies on the left and right are less likely to wield power.  It might also mean less and more circumspect (not necessarily weaker) government and that was fine by me. 

So now we are moving towards the end of the first real coalition government that today’s voters have ever experienced and gloves are coming off towards the 2015  (Guardian Sunday 15th December  http://t.co/TMJszk0YhZ ).  Anticipating some fun on doorsteps in the run up to the local council elections in 2014 and national elections in 2015 I thought I should hone up my arguments in favour of a coalition, and a vote for the Lib Dems.  

1.  Confirmed Tory voters will want to return a conservative government.  Confirmed Labour voters will want a Labour government.  An absolute majority in parliament is possible with somewhere between 35 and 45% of the votes polled, so neither will represent a majority of people in the UK. 

2. All parties are themselves coalitions themselves covering a broad range of political perspectives so the actual number of people supporting all policies put forward by a Labour or Conservative government will be even less than the number who voted for them.  Could be as little as 20%.  Is this any way to run a democracy? 

3.  The attitude of the other parties to a hung parliament resulting in another coalition will depend on how they come out of it.  There will be a lot of hypocrites who accuse the Lib Dems (assuming they once again go into a coalition with left of right) of “letting the other side in”.   Well, a coalition of Lib Dems with either Labour or conservative may alienate the extreme wing of the coalition partner, but is more likely to stay closer to the centre ground and therefore to better represent the country as a whole.  

4.  There will be Lib Dems who think that their leaders buddied up with the wrong party.  But forming an effective coalition is not easy, and is not about sticking with your chums.  So if one side (Labour at the last election) simply refuses to negotiate then no-one should be blamed for turning the other way; and it was principled in any event for Nick Clegg to turn first to the party that received the largest number of votes.
Without a coalition it is likely that the Tory party would have formed a minority government, lame duck or not, and returned to the electorate to gain a majority after a couple of years.  Fine for the Tories but where would that have left the rest of us?  Lib Dems now need to clearly make the case for coalition and that will be built not only on the number of Lib Dem policies that were implemented – as the junior partner we could not hope to achieve most of what was in the election manifesto – but on the Tory policies that we blocked. 

Here is the list, reproduced below, of 16 Tory policies thwarted by the Lib Dems (from the Guardian 18th September, reporting on Nick Clegg’s autumn conference speech) 

• Inheritance tax cuts for millionaires
• Bringing back O-levels
• A two-tier education system
• Profit-making in state schools
• New childcare ratios
• Firing workers at will, without any reasons given
• Regional pay penalising public sector workers in the north
• Scrapping housing benefit for young people
• Ditching the Human Rights Act
• Weakening the protections in the Equalities Act
• Closing down the debate on Trident
• Parliamentary boundary changes
• Scrapping Natural England
• Holding back green energy
• Stopping geography teachers telling children about how we can tackle climate change
• The snoopers' charter (draft communications data bill)

The story has moved on, for example on green energy some expenditure has been postponed, but even there the Tory party would have gone much further if not constrained by the coalition.

Is this list complete?  Are there any more to add?  What do you think?