Chris Huhne’s behaviour still has everyone at Westminster talking. Earlier in the
week, senior Liberal Democrats were saying that once the voting had happened, Paddy Ashdown and the party president Tim Farron would communicate the party’s anger at the behaviour of the No
campaign, while the party’s Cabinet ministers began to rebuild relations with their coalition colleagues. Vince Cable, for example, has been far more restrained today than he was during the
campaign, blaming AV’s defeat on the failings of the Yes campaign not the No campaign’s tactics.
But Huhne either didn’t get these instructions or has chosen to ignore them. He’s just turned in an extremely aggressive performance on the BBC’s election coverage, reiterating his previous complaints about the Tories’ complicity in attacks on Nick Clegg.
One lesson the Liberal Democrat’s should take from last night is that they have to defend their record better and that trashing the government of which they are part makes that harder.
Richard Kemp, leader of the Lib Dems in local government, has been out blaming Eric Pickles for the poor results this morning. But I suspect the Liberal Democrats would have done rather better if they had spent more time defending themselves and attacking their opponents rather than the coalition at Westminster.
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