They have been restored to third place in the House of Commons with 72 MPs after achieving the best general election result by a third party for a century. And a dramatic surge in hard-right populism – promoting a creed of intolerance, nativism and economic protectionism – offers a platform for strong voices to defend liberalism as others flee their traditional political terrain in panic.
The Tories look increasingly irrelevant, suffering a string of defections to join Nigel Farage’s forces and unable to shake off the toxic dual legacy of Brexit and a disastrous 14 years in Downing Street. Meanwhile the Lib Dems’ own leader is comparatively popular for a politician and has won rightful respect after detailing his role as a family carer.
Then his party sought to “reclaim patriotism” from the hard right by waving flags and singing “Land of Hope and Glory” – while pandering to their politics by demanding use of emergency wartime powers to clear the asylum backlog and empty hotels.
And this failure to cut through, this lacklustre effort to defend liberalism and offer serious policy solutions to key state failures, plays its part in the boosting of the corrosive, divisive and extreme voices on both flanks.
This has been a successful electoral strategy due to the vagaries of our outmoded electoral system in a new era of multi-party politics. In the first election fought as Lib Dems in 1992, they won almost one in five votes but only 20 seats. Davey’s smart targeting of shire constituencies – nicknamed the “Gail’s strategy” after focusing on comfortable areas containing the high-end bakery chain – delivered them 72 MPs last year despite only securing support from one in eight voters.
This ambition is potentially achievable thanks to the astonishing self-immolation of the Conservatives in the wake of Brexit. An arrogant party that assumed it was our country’s natural government has handed its heartlands in Middle England to a rival that is positioned on the centre-left.
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Yet this squabble on the right demonstrates that we live in an era of desperate need for powerful proclamation of liberal values. Democracy, free speech, human rights and unfettered trade are coming under attack on all sides. And there are votes to be won from disgruntled voters across the political spectrum as the traditional two-party duopoly dissolves.
Otherwise what is the point of this party? As William Gladstone, the former Liberal Party leader, said, nothing that is morally wrong can be politically right. His successors should stop the stunts, live up their party’s name and start mounting a vigorous defence of both liberalism and democracy.
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