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Richmond upon Thames Liberal Democrats:Covering the constituencies of Twickenham and Richmond Park |
What the Liberal Democrats should do next
May 7, 2011 12:17 PM
• [May 06] David Allen Green* writes: THE Left are generally more interested in protest than power. And so, even though in terms of practical policy the Liberal Democrats are ensuring that the Coalition government is far less brutal than it otherwise would be, many on the Left are gleeful at the party's electoral rout yesterday.
This is rather strange in terms of practical politics. It is almost as if the Left want the Conservatives to have more influence in the coalition, so as to punish Clegg and his party for daring to try and make a coalition work. The Left seem to want the Conservatives to marginalise the Liberal Democrats in government. The Left may well dislike the Tories; but they really do hate the ministerial Liberal Democrats, just as a religious fanatic hates the apostate more than the infidel. This ferocity must bewilder and unsettle the average Liberal Democrat activist . .
Both the Conservative and Labour Parties have come back from setbacks similar to that suffered by the Liberal Democrats yesterday. The loss of so many local councils will of course have an adverse and lingering effect on the party's activist base. But it is not the end. Instead, it is a signal to the party that it has to take exercising and retaining ministerial power seriously; to think and act and campaign as a Left-of-Centre party of power, making a substantive and positive difference to actual policy. And then the self-indulgence of opposition for its own sake can be left to the Labour Party.
* David Allen Green is legal correspondent for the New Statesman
• What the Liberal Democrats should do next [New Statesman May 06]
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