Cogito Ergo Non Serviam

British LibDems Conference Seeks a Future

Britain's Liberal Democrats are holding their annual conference this week in Brighton, and the first question, indeed the only question, is why. Why is there a party conference for a party that was destroyed in the polls at the last general election and found itself on the losing side of the EU referendum? Does the party have anything to offer the voters, or is it like New York's Liberal Party of days gone by, a vehicle to win jobs for the boys? There is a future for liberalism in the country, certainly, but whether there is room for a party dedicated to its principles and goals is hard to say.

The LibDems stand for things, certainly. They are internationalists at a time of rising nationalism. They are a party of meritocracy in a society still rife with class distinctions. They are a party of environmentalism at a time when many voters believe green values are too expensive. They are a party that represents the best instincts of the British people at a time when other parties are co-opting their language if not their policies.

What destroyed the LibDems was Nick Clegg's inept handling of the coalition with the Tories. He agreed to fixed-term parliaments and an understanding that his party would never walk out of government. The price of power was too high, and David Cameron, a bungler in many ways, craftily used the LibDems to see off his own hard right while making sure everyone on the left blamed the junior partner for the coalition's mere existence.

The Guardian wrote this morning, "In Brighton for their conference this weekend, activists were taking heart from an Opinium survey for the Social Market Foundation which showed that 45% of voters regard themselves as being in the centre. Other similar surveys find that Lib Dem policies are broadly in line with more voters' attitudes than those of any other single party."

Yet the paper goes on to point out, there are only 8 Liberal Democrats in Parliament. The party commands 8% of the public's support in the polls. And Tim Farron, the party leader, is a great fellow and charming man, but he is certainly no David Steel nor Paddy Ashdown.

Lord Ashdown said, "I'm fed up with the Tories. The Tories are ridiculous. They will split long before the Labour party does, mark my words. We don't want to increase the number of Lib Dem MPs to 30 or 40 at the next election, do we? Thirty or 40 MPs would merely put us in another coalition with the Conservatives. We shouldn't be aiming to merely remove the Tories; we should be looking to replace them."

Yet, His Lordship also said that he "wanted to create a movement. Forget another splinter group of the Lib Lib Dems or the Lib Dem Dems. Paddy was thinking big with the catchy title of More United. Also known as Pademos." The name derives from the Spanish anti-establishment Podemos (not too different from Barack Obama's Yes We Can). At the same time, he said, "Political parties are finished; the Liberal Democrats are intellectually dead."

A party that lacks leadership and intellectual heft already exists in Britain, Teresa May's Tories. For its part, Labour has too many leaders and too many ideas (many are mutually contradictory). However, the LibDems are fighting for turf traditionally theirs. They were environmentalists before there was a Green Party, and they were for devolution of power away from Westminster and Whitehall long before the SNP was more than a regional protest vehicle.

What the Liberal Democrats need to do, and this will take time, is decide what goals and policies define small "l" liberalism in the second decade of the twenty-first century, and then they must decide if their party can deliver them. In the 20th century, a great many Liberal and liberal policies were taken on by the Conservatives and Labour. That wouldn't be the worst thing in this century. But what are those policies?

© Copyright 2016 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.



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