Problem for the Lib Dems is that they plumped for a left wing leader thinking that Labour would go centrist/Blairite and that they would be able to move to the left of Labour and occupy that ground again. Instead Labour have gone hard left which leaves the centre open for the Tories and it leaves the Lib Dems a bit directionless again
Before Corbyn I thought the Lib Dems had become a bit redundant because both parties embraced liberalism and sought to occupy the moderate centre. Now that Labour have made the choice that they have I think there could be a place for the Lib Dems again: but not under Farron. I find him very unimpressive with unclear principles and no real idea about how to rejuvenate the party. John Rentoul wrote a good article on it today:
Quote:
Farron said on Friday that he had “received a number of messages and calls from friends within the Labour Party distressed by the direction that their party is taking”, and he invited “liberals” to come and join his party. This is an appeal we will hear many times this week from the Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth.
It will fall on deaf ears, not least because it is comically misconceived. All labels in politics are too simple: left, right, hard left, liberal. But they do mean something, and those Labour sympathisers who are repelled by Jeremy Corbyn are not liberals, they are social democrats.
It ought to be relevant, therefore, that the Lib Dems were created by a merger of the Liberal and Social Democratic parties, and you might expect Farron to emphasise the party’s social-democratic tradition. Instead he is appealing for “liberals” to come and join him...That shows how little he understands Labour MPs.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/...-10509520.html
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