The Liberal Democrats have a lot on their plate. It is an odd mix. There is the personal tragedy of Chris Huhne and Vicki Pryce, leading to both being charged with a serious criminal offence and Huhne’s exit from the Cabinet. Huhne protests innocence. If he is right, he will return to front line politics. If he is wrong, his political career is over.
This would be a blow to his Party, just under half of whom wanted him as leader. He has challenged the Tories in Cabinet, when they violated principles the Lib Dems held dear and thus became the champion of the grass roots members, mostly uncomfortable about their party’s closeness to the Tories. He was a good minister. The interesting thing is that all the Lib Dems in government impress at every level, yet the party has lost so much popularity since joining government that current polling averages would give it only fifteen MPs after a snap general election. We shall see after the local government elections in May how bad things actually are.
Unfortunately most voters now regard the choice as between Conservative and Labour. The attraction of a third party has diminished. Moreover joining the Tories in government appalled most of its supporters on the left, who now that New labour is history, are returning to the party of their roots. It was the ability to penetrate the Labour heartland which gave the Lib Dems their surge in numbers during the Blair years.
By far the biggest disaster was tuition fees. This u-turn was seen as a betrayal by all its young supporters and it will take a generation and fading memories to neutralise the corrosive effect of such a spectacular breach of trust. When all is said and done, the Lib Dems are in a very difficult place. There are many aspects beyond their control. In the whole context it is unlikely that the outcome of the Huhne/Pryce trial will have much impact outside the Party. The voters, they count first above everything after all, are unlikely to care either one way or the other.
Jack Handey Deep Thoughts: “When I heard that trees grow a new ‘ring’ for each year they live, I thought, we humans are kind of like that we grow a new layer of skin each year, and after many years we are thick and unwieldy from all of our skin layers.”
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