The Wardman Wire

What is it about the Lib Dems that leads them to always believe that they are about to become the second party in British politics?

Not long ago, they were claiming to be the “real opposition” to Labour as the Tories were, apparently, dying. Well, that didn’t exactly come true now, did it?

But Clegg’s at it again. Claiming that the current revolt by Labour MPs against Brown shows that we are “watching the death throes of the Labour Party”. Unfortunately not.

Labour may be fighting like a bunch of ferrets in a sack about to be thrown overboard from the ship of state, but these ferrets can swim. Modern political parties just don’t die so easily, at least not in Britain where the ties to the populace can be very deep indeed.

The late nineties didn’t signal the death throes of the Conservative Party, as shown by their current revival, and we are not witnessing the death throes of the Labour Party at the moment. The worst that will happen is a massive collapse in their support for the next few years, but they will inevitably claw some support back over time as the political seesaw swings back the other way.

However, it is the Lib Dems opportunity to make their move. They don’t have a chance of becoming the opposition or government, but they do have the chance to push their support to encompass more than just protest votes - whether they can hold on to them when Labour recovers is a different matter, however. But the Lib Dems will come under fire themselves from the Greens, who are becoming politically mature with the election of their first actual leader.

The problems with the Lib Dems is that they don’t really know where they stand. And they must get splinters in their arse from sitting on the fence so much. They need to decide where they actually sit, politically - not just spinning around and around as the mood takes them.