CNJ COMMENT - Who can woo the Lib-Dem ranks of disaffected?

Published: 26 August, 2010

THOUGH talks between the Lib-Dems and Labour collapsed in the post-election days, the forces that inspired them won’t go away.

They are bobbing up again in, of all places, the contest for the Labour leadership.

David Miliband wants to woo them.

He talks about a new big tent and, perhaps emptily, the need to engage with the “big issues” with “openness” facing Britain.

Somewhere, in this mix, as he sees it, attacks on the Lib-Dems will lead nowhere.

His brother Ed pours scorn on what he sees as the betrayal of Lib-Dem principles by the power-seeking leaders of their party.

He wants the ordinary principled members, those unhappy with the public spending cuts, the support for “free schools” and Trident, to join Labour.

It is hard to discern at this stage as to how much this is part of knockabout politics in what is an uninspiring contest.

Yet, even the most loyal Lib Dem member may find it difficult, if not impossible, to deny that the party’s membership is troubled by the concessions their leaders are making in the name of the governing Coalition.

No doubt the Lib-Dems feel they are members of a party that relishes robust debate.

To them this is something – rightly – to be proud of.

Ask Lib-Dem leaders – at any level – about a rift in the party, and denials come thick and fast.

But isn’t that inevitable in the world of politics?

Even the most detached observer would assume most party members must be intensely worried about the collapse in their ratings in the polls.

Given the present low level of support, they would face a disaster in the local elections next year.

Hard cop or soft cop.

Objectively, the Miliband brothers could be said to be taking up opposite parts.

It could be argued that somewhere in between their different approaches may lie the best course for Labour to take.

There is probably a wing of the Lib Dem Party that feels happier with the broad aims of Labour. 

Many ordinary, unambitious members who feel this should be their party’s direction may be worried that strangers to the historic philosophy of liberalism have captured the party from within.

Both Milibands appear to lack an understanding of the evolution of liberalism – well before the Lib-Dem Party came into being.