If you think the battle in the Tory party over policies can get bloody, spare a thought for the Lib Dems, who have to listen to their members as well as the differing views of their MPs. I write about how Nick Clegg and his colleagues at the top of the party are trying to encourage grown-up decision-making in my Telegraph column today.
The problem for the Lib Dems – which they regard as a strength – is that their party structure gives members a great deal of final say over the manifesto content. A manifesto working group, led by David Laws, reports to the Federal Policy Committee, which decides party policy. The party conference will also discuss a ‘manifesto themes’ document this autumn, and vote on the party’s pre-manifesto next year. If this arrangement sounds confusing, it’s worth revisiting this excellent organogram of how the Lib Dems ‘work’ to see quite how fraught their policy-making process is.
The main conflict in the party at the moment, according to those pushing the grown-up line, is between pragmatists and idealists, rather than left and right.
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