An Uninspiring Liberal Democrat Conference

The two main political parties are in the grip of civil war. Labour has been taken over by the hard left and has wandered into territory normally associated with the far-right, anti-Semitism with even Holocaust denial appearing on the Facebook pages and twitter accounts of some of the more deranged Corbyn supporters.

Meanwhile the Tories are engaging in fratricidal warfare over Brexit. Theresa May has shown herself to be an inept and weak leader. The prospect of the buffoon Boris Johnson looms in the background as her successor being the darling of what remains of the blue rinse brigade in the shires.

The Liberal Democrats are Britain's third party and one would think they should be rising in the poles and taking advantage of the situation despite only having a dozen MP's. They were down to just 6 seats when I became active in politics back in the seventies. They survived the Thorpe Scandal, rose up with the SDP Alliance and at one point had 52 MP's in parliament.

Then came the coalition. Clegg dumped support for abolishing university fees and then agreed to a vote on a form of PR that no one wanted including his own party. It all went downhill from there. The Liberals went into government with the Tories and tasted power only to be punished by the electorate who threw out nearly all the Lib Dems MP's.



Even so that's the past, but people have long memories and strong party loyalties are difficult to break. Just ask the moderate Labour MP's who remain in Labour despite the growing deselection purge awaiting them.

Watching bits of the Liberal Democrats Conference on the BBC's Parliamentary Channel has proved less than inspiring. Before the conference Vince Cable talked about a new "centre movement" and also invited non-members to sign up for possible inclusion in a vote for their leader which may not be an MP.

Speaker after speaker talks about being "Liberal", "radical" and the need for "Liberalism" but this ideology seems somewhat undefined since others spoke of "social democracy" which is closer to my beliefs.

Other than demanding an end to Brexit which is not possible and would go against the democratic result of the referendum whether I agree with leaving the EU or not. Gina Miller addressin conference (who rejected the notion of her becoming leader  not least because she is not a member) said:

Make no mistake - time is running out. We have just 193 days to go until our scheduled departure from the EU, and, as things stand, we have no agreed plan, no prospect of an agreed plan.

A leader in charge of what looks like an increasingly unleadable party.

An Opposition that is not opposing, and reasonable, sensible, conciliatory voices - such as your own - being all too often drowned out and suppressed by what I can only describe as hysteria.

It’s time for politicians to do the morally and democratically right thing – to let the people decide their own future on the facts before it is too late.

There is a need for a new party of the centre. A recent poll showed no less than 52% of the electorate would "mull over supporting a centre party". That's not definite support of course, but there is hope.

At the moment the will does not exist and the Brexit question needs to be resolved before a new party can be set up.

But set up a new party must be.

The Liberal Democrats are not that party.