1. The Lib Dems think they will be in power again after 2015
This whole conference was aimed at making that easy by encouraging activists to back grown-up policies rather than argue about goldfish. The Lib Dem leader placed great emphasis in his speech on his party’s ability to work with any party, arguing that it didn’t matter who he got on with better personally. As James writes, the Lib Dems had a good conference because they think there will be another hung parliament.
2. The Lib Dems believe in coalition more than they believe in anything else.
Clegg’s ‘this-is-who-I-am’ passages in his speech explained his frustration with two-party politics, not his convictions about the size of the state or anything specific. He wants to sell the Lib Dems not as the ‘party of work’ or the ‘party of the NHS’, or any other tag that Labour and the Tories might tussle over, but as the moderating force in government.
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