Have the Lib Dems learned the wrong lesson from the SNP?

That the Tories would enjoy this general election campaign and Labour would spend it alternating between abject misery and total panic was a given from the moment Theresa May announced she wanted to go to the polls. More of a surprise has been how uncomfortable the Liberal Democrats have looked so far. Tim Farron has spent far too much time defending and then apparently recanting various unpopular beliefs. The party is averaging nine per cent in the polls. One analysis suggests they could end up with fewer than the nine seats they currently hold. What’s going wrong?

Aside from Farron’s awkward media encounters over his religious beliefs, the party may also have made a mistake with its anti-Brexit strategy. It has tried to emulate the SNP, which picked up significant support after losing the 2014 independence referendum by tapping into a sense of betrayal amongst those who voted ‘Yes’. But the Lib Dem imitation of this success has been crude: Nicola Sturgeon poured considerable effort into reassuring ‘No’ voters and those who had voted ‘Yes’ but who didn’t want another referendum that she was more interested in providing a strong voice for Scotland in Westminster, rather than further constitutional change.