I used to envy the Liberal Democrats their conference. Before the coalition came, it seemed the members were really engaged in the serious business of making policy. Policy that would be adopted by their leaders and taken seriously.
The coalition put lie to all that of course. As members of the smaller party in a coalition government, the best the Liberal Democrats could ever realistically hope to be, they looked on helplessly as all that carefully crafted policy was bargained away and lost to poor deal-making.
Then came the loss and devastation of the election. It was worse than any Liberal Democrat had even allowed themselves to fear. They were all but wiped out. From 57 to eight members of parliament, having already lost hundreds and hundreds of councillors.
After the election, Nick Clegg resigned, giving what I thought was an incredibly good speech, one of the best I have ever heard from a Liberal Democrat. In it he set out the case for liberalism and the vital importance of this fight for him personally and for his party.
The Liberal Democrat leadership contest was a lot less fractious than Labour’s (and a lot less interesting). It was a fight between their own right and left traditions, but a soggy one. With an expected and rather damp squib outcome. I mean, I like Tim Farron. Nice bloke when he is not being too sanctimonious – which makes him the perfect emblem of the party he leads which is still so very lost.
There was no big reckoning at Liberal Democrat conference. No soul-searching and no in-depth analysis of what went wrong. No recognition of the darkness of their depths or the length of the journey still to come.
Instead the Liberal Democrat members slipped back into their comfort zone debating policy areas but not politics. Singing glee club songs and being ‘nice’ and sanctimonious. From leader downwards there has been no attempt to understand that liberalism is in trouble.
But it is. All the main political parties are struggling with their place in the world and all have brands that the public are not wholly convinced by. As a result, each can look to one of the other parties and say smugly to themselves, ‘Hey, at least we aren’t you guys!’ But in doing so, each party only gives themselves false comfort. They put off the more difficult conversation they have to have with themselves about who they truly are. What they truly believe worth fighting for.
This conference season the Liberal Democrats chose to lick their wounds and retreat into their comfortable shells. But they have to know they have not avoided the next reckoning – just put it off. Opposition may feel comforting after the hell they went through going into a government of snakes armed only with an oven glove and a feather-duster. But if they ever want the chance to again be part of government – part of making a change – they need to prepare, not ponder.
Liberalism and democracy are important central concepts to modern Britain. But if they were ever concepts solely owned by the Liberal Democrats they are not now. What is differently liberal about them that you cannot find – at least in part – in other parties? It is not Farron’s vision of fundamental ‘niceness’. I’ve met some bloody horrible Liberal Democrats and some charming Tories. And for it to work, it cannot be the sanctimony that is left behind when a party remains convinced they are uniquely nice, uniquely good.
Liberalism needs defending and championing. It needs contextualising for the 21st century. Niceness is its own reward. Let the Liberal Democrats remember this going forward. It was certainly missing in Bournemouth.
———————————
Emma Burnell is a political blogger and campaigner. She tweets @EmmaBurnell_
———————————