Really? In that case it was the biggest exercise in cutting your nose off to spite your face in a very long time, as they put in place an even more right-wing, even more anti-working class section of the Tory Party than were in office before!

Moreover, those “ordinary” voters (whoever they may be) you refer to, had the opportunity to the vote for the Lib-Dems as an alternative to Labour in 2015, but instead the Liberals got annihilated. They had the opportunity to vote for them in 2016, after Corbyn became Labour Leader, but in the London Assembly elections they came fifth!

The Liberals and the Labour Right keep talking about this mythical centre ground, and keep telling us that elections can only be won upon it, but in every election over the last few years, it has been shown to be a fantastical construction in the heads of career politicians and journalists who live in the same establishment bubble. If they really believe what they say they would have already gone ahead with a repetition of the SDP/Liberal lash up of the 1980’s, but they won’t because they know its a fantasy.

It had a better chance of success in the 1980’s, because of the specific conditions, but look at the actual support for parties during that period, and you will see that Labour continued to have the largest support, up until the Falklands War. All the SDP did was to take enough support away from Labour to prevent it winning, and thereby as the Liberals and SNP had done in 1979, it acted as support for the right-wing Thatcherites, just as Clegg acted as support for Cameron.

But, having fulfilled that role the SDP/Liberal lash-up in the 1980’s disappeared, having put Thatcher in office, and Clegg’s Liberals have disappeared having put Cameron in office, and thereby making way for May, Johnson, Davis and all the other reactionary throwbacks.

I’d already replied to the “other points” in response to others comments. Winning Council seats in specific areas, and in by-elections, on low polls means nothing. A gain of 14 net Council seats is hardly anything to write hom about when you have just seen your MP’s reduced from 70 to 8!

As for your free market ideology, haven’t you read the Liberals history as a party, have you not read your “Orange Book”. David Laws was a more enthusiastic free marketer than George Osbourne, and after he was gone he was replaced by the equally pro-market Alexander. You’ve got away with your two-faced position in the past at local level, but having gone into government as soon as your MP’s smelled Ministerial leather, your true nature has been exposed, and rejected by the voters, which is why a lash up with you, or a return to your kind of politics by the Blair-rights, and their fetish of the “centre-ground” is a non-started.

Its a bit rich for any Liberal to criticise Labour members for the Tories getting into office. You had the perfect opportunity to prevent that in 2010, but instead found a natural home in government with the most right-wing Tory government for decades. Now Your ex Leader Clegg wants you to lash up another coalition with them, which he had hoped to achieve at the last General Election!

I notice you have not commented on the other points I made, but have reverted to tribalistic “the LibDem are dead” rhetoric. At the last general election, many parts of the Labour party were so dedicated to kicking the LibDems that they forgot to kick the Tories, which helped them beat Labour and win an unexpected majority. The Tories are still thanking you now!

Not sure where you get the idea that LibDems are free market obsessives from. You write as if we’re like those right wing libertarians who want to marketise everything and regulate nothing. Ironically, we LibDems get accused by right wingers of being “anti-business” due to wanting to do things such as crack down on tax avoidance and better regulate markets.

Which tells you exactly where the Lib Dem corpse is lying. Its seen as a free market outfit, that might provide a home for right-wing Labour careerists, with similar free market ideas, and hope to get themselves some sinecure at a local level, or maybe even an appointment to the House of Lords that well known bastion of democratic principles where so many Liberals are already massively over represented.

The fact that people like Ed Balls will not touch the Liberals with a barge pole shows that the PLP rebels know that route is a dead end. It would be literally sadistic, necrophiliac, bestiality, i.e. beating a dead horse.

* Surge in LibDem membership (now around 80,000 – higher than when Charles Kennedy was leader) since the referendum.

* The LibDems have not only won several solid Labour seats in council by-elections recently, but have also won seats from the Tories and UKIP too. The seats are in very different parts of the country including Sheffield, Derbyshire, Cornwall, East Sussex and Cardiff. This means the LibDems currently have the best council by-election record of any party since May 2016 (15 gains, no losses, 100% defence rate).

* The LibDems also had the best English council election results of any party in May. We had an overall gain of 45 seats and gained control of 1 council. This compares to overall losses of 48 for the Tories and overall losses of 18 for Labour at a time when the main opposition party should be winning, especially as I believe the seats up for election in May this year tended to be in Labour strongholds.

*In Scotland we retained the same number of MSPs (Labour lost 13 seats) and took two constituency seats from the SNP. (We had awful Welsh Assembly results with the exception of the brilliant Kirsty Williams, but the Welsh by-election gain from Labour this week shows that can change).

This is only a modest start in our party’s fightback, but a serious start it is.

Depending on how accurate you think social media is, there has certainly been noise in recent days from some Labour members along the lines of “if Corbyn is re-elected I’m joining the LibDems”. A few have already jumped ship, but I think they make up a small proportion of LibDem newbies, most of whom have never joined a political party before. Interesting times….

On a National level the Libdems have messed it up big time.
Consider the following :
*The predictions that were made and are being made by Clegg are 180 degrees out on The Economy and EU stability and effectiveness .
*Clegg was wrong but his self confidence and Ego made him a big personality which Farron totally lacks ,
*Any party needs a big character as a leader to whom voters can relate . The lib Dems have not got one.
*The Lib Dems are peddling lines appropriate to the 1970s or before . The voters have moved on.
The middle to left ground has been hoovered up by Theresa Mays reorganised Tories.
*The EU is collapsing and Farron wants a re-run of the referendum , or its equivalent. Political suicide.
small local successes are not necessarily a good indicator but UKIP has seduced very many LibDem waverers it seems.

SINJUN