Tuesday 16th May

The LibDems, or really the Liberals as we know them, are neither fish nor foul, neither Angels nor Devils, and consequently are never really taken seriously.  But under Charlie Kennedy, their best leader in decades, they presented an alternative voice and gained as many as 65 MPs at one time.  During the Blair years they seemed more left-wing than Labour, but they made a fatal error under Clegg in joining the Tories in Coalition.  Rather than being seen as sensible and helping save the country from financial ruin (which the Coalition only exacerbated in fact) they became traitors and in fact allowed the Tories to do almost exactly what they wanted to.  If only they had told the Tories to Govern on their own and vote bill by bill it would have been a different story, but through either naivety or venality they preferred to be offered a few crumbs of Government.

And now they have a new young leader who talks the talk – but unfortunately is of that brand of Christianity which believes that Homosexuality is a sin.  Ironic that the party which is probably most ‘liberal’ about sexuality (remember Jeremy Thorpe) should now be led by a man who although he accepts Gay Marriage etc; is privately unreconciled to the fact of love between two men or women.

Not that that on its own will stop people voting LibDem.  Sometimes in politics it takes some time to be forgiven, and the huge ‘U-turn’ on their 2010 pledge on tuition fees still sticks in many previous LibDem voter’s throats.  They may pick up a couple of seats in the West Country or to the South West of London, but it will be many years and maybe many elections before they are ever a real force again.