Jo Swinson’s ordeal at the hands of Andrew Neil dramatised (painfully) the anguish of being a liberal in an age of populism. The Liberal Democrats are the ultimate fence-sitters, the men too broadminded to take their own side in a quarrel, per Robert Frost’s aphorism. But in this election they have tried to represent the centre while advocating the most extreme position on Brexit.
As Neil pointed out to Swinson on tonight’s BBC One interview, her policy of revoking Brexit without a vote (in the event of a Lib Dem majority government) was so fundamentalist it has proved off-putting even to some Remainers. He suggested this might have contributed to Swinson’s ever-declining favourability ratings, and he’s probably onto something there. This is what we might call Campanella Syndrome, after Jackie Robinson’s quip about Roy Campanella: ‘The more you see of Camp, the less you like him.’ Voters are not averse to the idea of Swinson but when they actually see her on TV, she comes across like a Benenden head girl arranging the annual dance and having to do everything herself because the rest of you squits would just get it wrong anyway.
The revoke policy is an example of the Lib Dems trying to be populists and failing badly.
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