Too Little, Too Late

Wednesday 5th November

I used to quite like the Lib-Dems, especially under Charlie Kennedy – by far the best leader they have ever had.  They represented a slightly different perspective, still just about to the left of Labour but with a different heritage.  I only voted for them once, in a local council election thinking they stood a better chance to oust the Tories than Labour.  I was wrong, but there you go.  Their problem always was that no matter how much you agreed with them there seemed little point in voting for them as they would never be in a position to form a Government and put those ideas into practice.  It was simply a protest vote.

Ah, just how wrong can you be?  Despite losing a handful of seats in 2010 they found themselves in the position of ‘kingmakers’.  And despite the fact that they were ideologically far closer to Labour they chose the Tories.  Labour looked tired and I suppose they thought they might be able to temper the worst instincts of the Tories.   And they stupidly celebrated the Coalition, Clegg appearing with Cameron in the rose garden for photo’s.  They should have been more stand-offish, letting everyone know that this was a temporary arrangement and that they were only in bed with the enemy out of necessity not out of love.

Too late, the electorate has got the message that they are closet Tories and largely blame the LibDems for the worst excesses of this Government.  Of late, as 2015 and electoral disaster looms, they have tried to position themselves apart, but it doesn’t really ring true and even ministerial resignations register as feeble gesture politics.  They will go down to a mighty defeat and lose possibly half of their M.P.s.  But little good will it do Labour; in most of their seats the Tories are in second place.  And that protest vote may well end up with the Greens or UKIP.  Almost everyone I meet is apprehensive of an election in which almost all of the old certainties are gone.