The intrigue of the Liberal Democrats’ conference has centred on the party’s
split personality. A Sunday Times/YouGov poll disclosed that as many as 50 per cent of Lib Dems believe that it was wrong to go into coalition in the first place, leading one to assume that only
the small clique of ‘conservatives’ around Nick Clegg is keeping the Lib Dems in government.
There is a still a strong feeling that going into coalition was the right thing to do for party and country. Lib-Dems who think otherwise, I’m told, “should seriously question [their] logic” because there was no alternative. However much that is true, Lib-Dems still miss opposition. One source says, “opposition is lovely” and the conference hall erupted into chest-beating rapture for the party’s president, Tim Farron, who declared that Clegg was “leading the opposition” as well as being David Cameron’s deputy.
Yesterday, James wrote, “What scares the liberals around Clegg about Farron is just how well he connects with the party activists”. Soundings of Lib-Dems bear this out. “Farron is an amazing president and he made a huge impact,” said a Lib-Dem after the speech, “he really shone and rallied the troops”. The same source does maintain that Nick Clegg’s position is “safe for now” because there are no real contenders for his position. “Yet”, they add.
The split at the top of the party is self-evident. Yet things are different below stairs, where there apparently isn’t a “clear split at all” between activists. People might have differing opinions, but there are few cliques. Lib-Dem members might respect Clegg and his ministerial colleagues, but they appear to be united behind a different banner.
Nik Darlington blogs for Total Politics.
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