Dear Tim Hames,
Ouch. You really stuck this knife in this morning in The Times about the Lib Dems. Even though I have no problem with them as a party, I do tend to agree with you by questioning what purpose they actually serve.
As I see it, their support over the last few years has come down to three fairly independent factors:
1. The Iraq war - they opposed it, the voters respected that and probably agreed to some extent, but now the only debate is how quickly to get out of Iraq which renders their arguments irrelevant.
2. Apathy towards Labour and the Conservatives - they will always pick up some protest votes if people get bored of the other parties, but the Brown and Cameron bounces have left them trailing.
3. Charles Kennedy - I, like many other people, had great respect for Charles and he had a wonderful way with the public and media. Sadly, he has gone and his support among swing voters has deserted the Lib Dems.
I agree with you that the third point may work to the advantage of the Lib Dems with a new and more dynamic leader in place. Your belief that there will always be a place for Liberals is undoubtedly true, although bizarrely their place may well be in the Conservative Party rather than the Lib Dems.
With respect,
A.Tory
4 responses so far ↓
redandwhitestripes // October 29, 2007 at 12:11 pm
They did do one good thing this year. They vehemently opposed the amendment to one of the acts (I forget which one) that would allow MPs to hide some of their correspondence.
Letters From A Tory // October 30, 2007 at 8:16 am
Fair point, but do you think the public know about this? In the eyes of the public and media, they are certainly slipping out of sight. I’m sure a new leader could begin to address this, but would they be able to rejuvenate the party in the long run?
redandwhitestripes // October 31, 2007 at 12:07 pm
I think the problem is that their politics is too closely aligned with Labour (as we saw this year). To pull out of their current slump, they need strong leadership and some new policies that are distinctly their own. With the current state of our nation, the ground for new parties, new leaders and new politics lies on the right IMHO. I’ll give them some credit for being the most transparent party, but that’s all
Letters From A Tory // October 31, 2007 at 2:59 pm
Interesting you should say that, as I would have thought the centre-left ground is much emptier than the centre-right. Labour are hardly socialist these days, so I thought the Lib Dems could quite easily move into the space they have vacated by putting forward a very liberal agenda.
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