How do you solve a problem like electoral decimation? Grimaces and grins lit up the faces of the assembled Liberal Democrats as the lights dimmed on the final day of Conference to hear a rallying cry from the once-powerful party’s leader.
There would be no sudden renouncement of the Coalition path. “We are proud of what we did in Government. Proud of our record and proud of our party”, Tim Farron resolutely declared, sticking stubbornly to some of the key themes that had illuminated his predecessor’s increasingly plaintive pre-election speeches.
‘Balance the books, but not on the backs of the poor’ was the message energetically conveyed by this cheery, plain-speaking northern face as he expounded upon his own life story in support of the call to arms “to give those who are able to take responsibility for their own lives the chance to succeed”.
The policy pledges were on familiar themes: mental health, schools and infrastructure investment. But there was a new edge of indignation as the figurehead contemplated the fate of his party’s best-laid plans in that most cosy of departments for Liberal Democrat proclivities: DECC.
He even brought up his famous love of pop to make a political point. Don’t it always seem to go, he rapped out to the hall in the echo of Joni Mitchell, that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone?
While the Coalition Government was few people’s idea of paradise, his trawl through the annals of seventies pop-folk belied a serious point: the Conservatives were, in the eyes of those who until so recently oversaw this highly technical field, vandalising the Liberal Democrat energy policy legacy.
Also ripe for excoriating reference was the Government’s designs on housing. From opposing the “forced sell-off” of housing association assets to presenting plans to build, the Lib Dems had clearly identified the social impact of home woes, and their intense relevance to the next generation.
Here was an urgent call to action on a topic more typically associated with the campaigning ire of the left. So could anything be gleaned from his choice of a deep red tie?
Certainly, there was less focus in Mr Farron’s remarks on the Conservatives’ many misdeeds – wicked though they undoubtedly were in the Lib Dem imagination – and instead much pointed reference to the need for an Opposition that could take a feasible stand.
“You cannot change people’s lives from the glory of self-indulgent opposition”, he bluntly declared, in what could only be seen as a sharp salvo against Her Majesty’s newly-radical Official Opposition.
Clearly, the Lib Dem fightback has commenced with a canny ear to the bitter complaints of Labour’s alienated centrists.
To left-wing souls left frustrated by Labour’s ideological diversions; ‘Nats’ discontented with the governing realities of the SNP; Tories unable to tolerate the toll of austerity; and even ex-Lib Dems who fell by the way, the message was clear: Tim Farron’s Big Yellow Taxi is hoping to pick you up.
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