Cleggover puts his foot in it (again)

Sometimes I get asked by students whether there will be a relaignment of the parties, and if the Liberal Democrats have a chance of supplanting the current big two. Some Lib Dems believe that if they can break through the 100 MP barrier in the Commons then this will be a tipping point. But without a system of proportional representation this looks unlikely.

As for my penny’s worth I just don’t think that the media and the electorate consider them a serious party. Some studies suggest that many of the voters who have cast ballots in their favour have done so as a protest vote and probably would reconsider voting for them if they had a realistic chance of forming the government. Partly it is also because it is hard for us, and them, to say what they are for. Lastly, I don’t want to write anything libellous here. But type the following word combinations into any search engine:

“Paddy Ashdown adultery” “Mark Oaten rent boy” “Charles Kennedy alcohol” “Lembit Opik Cheeky Girls”

So part of their problem is of their own making. Their current leader, Nick Clegg, had some explaining to do to this week after a journalist apparently overheard him laying into his front bench team. The Indy reports some of what he said:

‘...he had damning words for three of his most high-profile frontbenchers as he travelled on a 90-minute flight from London to Inverness with his chief of staff, Danny Alexander. With reporter Adam Lee-Potter eavesdropping, he reportedly said of Steve Webb, his energy and climate change spokesman: “He’s a problem. I can’t stand the man. We need a new spokesman. We have to move him. We need someone with good ideas. At the moment, they just don’t add up.” But he added: “We need to keep him in the cabinet. As a backbencher, he’d be a pain in the arse, a voice for the left. And we can’t move him before the spring.”’

Read the rest of the report here.