Tagged with Nick Clegg

The Liberal Democrats are totally stuffed

Lib-Dem-logoA Tory and a LibDem standing on the edge of a cliff. Who do you push off first? The Tory, obvs: business always comes before pleasure. So goes the favourite gag of a former shadcab member. A number of longer-serving Labour activists might appreciate that, but the joke’s in danger of being a touch dated. For most of the ’00s the Liberal Democrats were almost fashionable. They did very well out of their opposition to the Iraq War, and for the early part of that decade Charles Kennedy (RIP) helped them look good and a little bit leftish. Then came Menzies Campbell’s interlude and Nick Clegg, and for a while – especially just prior to the 2010 general election – LibDem yellow looked like it might transmute into electoral gold. Continue reading →

Cameron up shit creek as defeat beckons

cameron-ineptCameron’s last desperate throw by rousing English nationalism is clearly aimed at saving Tory seats in areas where the UKIP challenge is pressing hardest, in order to ratchet up the total number of Tory seats which, when combined with likely allies, will enable him to just slip over the line back into Downing Street. On that basis, according to the latest polls, the LibDems might get 27 seats (a drop of nearly half), UKIP might get 1, and the DUP (Paisley’s fundamentalist Protestant party) will probably have 9 seats. Continue reading →

Lib Dems: “no one likes us and we don’t care!”

Clear yellow waterClegg could have said “no one likes us and we don’t care.” Reviled by the Tories and Labour in equal measure – that’s the lot of the Liberal Democrat. But now you’re scrapping with the Greens for fourth place, and your main competitors are them and Farage’s pint quaffing, poison-swilling rabble; this year’s party conference might have had a touch of humility about it.

Nah. There was none. LibDems can “hold their heads high” said Clegg in a speech rivalling the late Tony Cliff for volubility and official enthusiasm. Promising a shopping list of policy from a welcome pledge of mental health waiting time to yet another raising of the basic tax threshold (what relief for those already taken out of tax?), and some stinging points against Theresa “Koba” May’s embarrassing lurch into authoritarianism, Clegg was keen to put clear yellow water between his party and the Conservatives. Best not talk about how the LibDems have enabled the grotesque waste of taxpayers’ cash on backdoor privatisation, or their robust defences of the hated work capability assessment, or the bedroom tax then, because if they’re not careful, sharper voters might make the connection. Continue reading →

Detoxifying the Liberal Democrats

toxic Lib DemsWhat are we to make of the LibDem’s about-turn on the bedroom tax? Whole-hearted penance or are more cynical motives at work? I’m sure readers won’t be shocked if the truth lies closer to the latter pole than the former, but it begs the question. With up to two-thirds of the Parliamentary party looking to have an abrupt career change after May next year, what kind of strategy should the LibDems pursue to avoid outright catastrophe?

If there is one thing they can take from the coming disaster, next year’s results are likely to be “trough LibDem”. It cannot get much worse. The problem is that the brick wall is coming, the collision is inevitable – but there are things that can be done to ease off on the accelerator. And signalling opposition to the hated bedroom tax is just one of those late-in-the-day things. To detoxify they need to put clear water between themselves and a Tory party whose nastiness is matched only by their determination to drag Britain down the plug hole. Continue reading →