The last few days I’ve been realising how a popular Lib Dem party is bloody difficult to attack. When they’re unpopular its the easiest thing in the world – simply ignore them or laugh at them and they go away. Sadly the stakes are high enough that the powers that be need to move to stage 3 of the Gandhi 4 Step Programme, and that means ‘fight’.. but is it that simple?
“The Lib Dems will flounder when people look at their policies”
Doubt it. Confirmation bias suggests that the self-selecting audience of people who go looking for actual policies will want to like what they see. There’s enough sweet stuff in there to make most people feel happy about their choice. 10k income tax threshold? It’s a winner.
“Yeah but, Europe… what about Europe?”
And who’s going to bring that one up? The Tories? Doubt it – just a few days on a big Europe and/or Immigration bender will be enough to undo the last 4 years of Decontamination, leaving Cameron in the same trap that caught the legs of Hague, Duncan-Smith and Howard. He’s simply not that stupid and will be hoping that someone like UKIP – or Labour – does the dirty work. Or, perhaps, in the next Leaders’ debate the subject will come up and Clegg will be ‘exposed’ that way.
But, be warned – Clegg is compelling on Europe and shows courage in his willingness to stick to his guns against populist sentiment. When I got the chance to interview him face to face his argument was that yes the EU is messed up and needs radical reform, but pointed out that without the EU, Europe would be a continent of highly protectionist nation states far worse than they already are. In their manifesto the first EU policy is “breaking down trade barriers” and that I can approve of. In fact, in wanting reform of subsidies and limits on what the EU spends money on, the Lib Dems are surprisingly conservative here.
I think he needs to go a lot further with his criticism and be specific about the bits he does and doesn’t like, but frankly the idea of greater European co-operation on climate change and banking regulation leaves me cold… well, more than that, I actively despise that sort of policy. The fact that they’re offering an in/out referendum seems enough to mute a lot of fear.
“The Lib Dems won’t survive the onslaught of negativity that’ll be coming their way”
It’s already started – YouGoV/Murdoch are engaging in pretty nasty push polling (h/t Alix Mortimer). Of course, if this story escapes from the blogosphere, the idea that The Establishment are terribly threatened by the Lib Dems and will do anything to hurt them will become a ‘thing’, reinforcing Clegg’s narrative of the Lib Dems being an insurgency of normal people against the powers that be… and future negative campaigning will serve no purpose other than to harden attitudes in favour of the Lib Dems, making the situation worse for the Big Two. It’s not clear who, exactly, can make successful attacks.
“Nick Clegg isn’t really British, is he?”
I always wondered if and when Clegg’s not quite 100% pure British heritage would become an issue, and concluded that not even the British tabloids were that repulsive… but you never know. Clegg’s mother is Dutch and his father is half Russian, making him, I suppose, genetically Lib Dem. But then, Barack Obama’s middle name was Hussain and he’s Black and that wasn’t a massive problem for him.
“A vote for the Lib Dems will mean a Tory Government”
Is that a threat?
“A vote for the Lib Dems will mean a Labour Government”
I’m confused.
“A vote for the Lib Dems will mean a hung parliament”
I’m really confused.
“Yeah but they can’t win though”
What, technically? I think you’ll find they can.
“Oh, piss off. You know what I meant. They won’t win.”
So?
“But it’d be a wasted vote!”
And? That’s illegal now, is it? Let people vote how they want.
“But The Tories Will Get In!”
We’ve covered this already.
“But.. but.. Brown!”
Don’t worry. He agrees with Nick.
