General election: the contradictions of the Liberal Democrats
THE Liberal Democrats’ basic marketing pitch, at least to the politically unsophisticated, is that they are not the Labour Party and they are not the Conservatives. Unfortunately for them, the only way they can hope to take part in the next government is in coalition with one or the other of the formations that they [...]
Nick Clegg: the strange resurrection of Liberal England?
GO BACK to your constituencies and prepare for government. Or something like that. The leader of the Liberal Democrats believes that Britain is about to enter a ‘new era of Liberal politics’, with the use of a capital L here presumably deliberate. Nick Clegg’s contention is that we are about to witness the strange resurrection [...]
Nick Clegg speech: Lib Dems move right
Your starter for ten: quote soundbites from three memorable Liberal conference speeches. You may choose from any period in the long and distinguished history of the once great party of Lloyd George, Keynes and Beveridge. Toughie, right? Even hardened political obsessives will probably be stumped. The one quote that instantly does spring to mind is [...]
How to win friends and tax people
The Lib Dems have gotten bored of outflanking Labour from the left and have decided to outflank the Tories from the right instead. Well, that’s the interpretation some commentators are putting on the news that Nick Clegg – pictured – has switched his party’s fiscal policy to a reduce public expenditure/cut taxation platform, at any [...]
Nick Clegg: is liberalism too much to expect from the Lib Dems?
The so-called centre ground is the most overcrowded stretch of real estate in British politics. It is – as I’ve argued before – in truth really the centre-right, and must rank somewhere about seven or eight on a scale from democratic socialism to Thatcherite Conservatism, but let that pass. With both New Labour and the [...]
The Liberal Democrat leadership contest and the left
The Liberal Democrats have long been a few inches to the left of New Labour. Or to perhaps express the matter more exactly, New Labour has long been a few inches to the right of the Lib Dems. These differences are largely nuances, of course. There are no disagreements of substance sufficient to rule out [...]
