Cameron and Clegg are putting on a show for the in-laws. After mounting disquiet from the fringes of their respective parties, the two leaders are journeying to Oldham East to quash
rumours of a merger and reaffirm that theirs is a marriage of necessity.
David Cameron will travel north in due course. God knows what he will say? Presumably that he no longer wishes his partners well – get out there and biff ‘em, or words to that effect. On the other hand, Nick Clegg will declaim his lines today. His script is hyperbolic, replete with wishful fantasy about a ‘two-horse race between Labour and the Liberal Democrats’. Oldham is a three way marginal, with less than 2,500 votes between the three parties; even deliberately tepid Tory campaigning cannot alter fundamental demographics, especially as Liberal Democrat support will have withered – the party’s rating stands at 11 percent in an Independent poll of polls this morning.
That old Labour bruiser, Tom Watson, reckons there is a chance the Tories might win, an indication of Labour’s confidence in the electoral market. That reveals the irony of this by-election: the fevered concern about a possible Tory-Lib merger has obscured Ed Miliband’s continuing troubles, the scandalous Woolas campaign, Miliband’s misjudgement in appointing Woolas as a shadow minister, and Labour’s general inertia – analysed by the acute Douglas Alexander on Monday. The dual leadership survived the tuition fees row; it was senseless to allow Miliband a free hand by inspiring their parties’ indiscipline.
Comments