Liberals didn't abandon Nick Clegg; he abandoned them
Whatever you think of the current Labour Party, there’s no denying that it knows how to lose an election.
The morning of 8 May brought a crushing defeat, but for all the upset there was no time wasted. Miliband resigned and straight away conversations started about what could be done differently – and under who – to win in 2020.
Coming, as it did, on the morning the party hoped to walk victorious into Downing Street, this was admirably resilient. But what of the night’s other losers, the Liberal Democrats?
While there is no consensus on why Labour lost it, the Liberal Democrats can be under no illusions: five years of propping up a Tory government had ground voter support down to a nub.
Yet somehow, the party seems to have missed this message. Its leaders speak as if the electorate lost the election, not them – as if no mistakes have been made, save for by the voters.
Nick Clegg, stepping down, said the results had been ‘crushing and unkind‘. Paddy Ashdown said the outcome was ‘cruel‘. You’d think the public had failed to support them out of spite.
Clegg went on to say his MPs had lost their seats because of ‘forces entirely beyond their control’ and that the ‘politics of fear’ had cost them – the latter point was echoed by Vince Cable.
In a moment of undisguised contempt for the electorate, Clegg evoked a Liberal Democrat councillor who, on losing his seat, said he wholeheartedly accepted the voters’ verdict if it was their thanks for the scraps begged from the Tory table.
The notion that the coalition might have been a mistake, meanwhile, is not indulged at all. The party is agreed – it was brave and selfless to leap at power like a dog after a stick, and a move all should admire.
If a failure must be considered, it’s that the party did not adequately communicate its greatness. Yet this too can be someone else’s fault. One councillor told me they blamed the lack of a Liberal Democrat mouthpiece on Fleet Street.
Even Norman Lamb, who at least accepts some wrongdoing, seems to only give ground on the tuition fee U-turn, otherwise defending the Liberal Democrats’ time in Toryland.
One might expect something like humility from a party that lost 85 per cent of its MPs, but the talk is mainly of rebuilding, and – with the coalition not disavowed – it’s on these toxic foundations.
The year after entering the Conservative coalition, Lib Dem party membership plummeted 25 per cent. Herein lies the key.
The Liberal Democrat voter base was, in no small part, composed of people on the centre-left. Did Clegg and co really expect to get into bed with a right-wing party and retain that support?
For many, this loss will seem well earned and richly deserved. Here is a party that not only helped the Tories into power, but continued to support them even when its own values were the price.
Whether or not the party did the right thing by sporting a Tory leash (it didn’t) is neither here nor there. The voters have decided it was wrong and, until the survivors distance themselves from the decision, they will be starved of support.
Clegg may mourn a sad result for liberalism, but liberalism is alive and well. Its followers didn’t abandon his party; his party abandoned them.
What matters now is who liberals choose to support in the future and, at this stage, it’s not the Liberal Democrats.
Michael Havis is a blogger and reporter. Read more of his work here
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13 Responses to “The Lib Dems’ contempt for the electorate will do them no favours”
Eddie Wizard
Utter infantile and barely disguised political point-scoring tripe
Grichlea
The truth obviously hurts some people!
James Chilton
For many years the “old liberals” had dreamed about taking their rightful place as governors of the people. So, when the chance came, the Lib Dems compromised their “principles” for the sake of being in a coalition government.
At the election they were spinning the tale that they did this noble deed of self sacrifice for the good of the country. But lots of people didn’t believe it.
tom
It would be nice to have some, you know, evidence to back to the assertions in this post – links from 2010 talking about how all the Lib Dem voters will turn Labour (!) do not count.
Looking at the actual election results:
In Scotland the LDs were wiped out by the same SNP wave that hit Labour.
Outside Scotland, the Lib Dems lost 39 seats, of which 27 (i.e. 70%) broke *Conservative*.
So that means:
Either
Lots of 2010 LD voters were left-wing, but do not understand tactical voting or FPTP
Or
Lots of 2010 LD voters actually ended up voting Conservative.
Either way, this is what Clegg and co are getting at when they describe the results as “cruel”, and you can kind of understand what he’s getting at.
A load of lazy assertions from the left flank calling the results their just desserts is not very insightful.
Selohesra
The polls & the media share much of the blame. They bigged up Labour’s chances of being next government and much of middle England did not want that & thought best way to stop it was to vote Tory. Had they realized that actually Labour were heading for disaster they may well have voted LibDem to prevent Tory majority.