Lib Dem conference: Paddy Ashdown hits out at opinion polls, Tories and pessimism

Polls don’t and shouldn’t matter to Liberal Democrats, so says Paddy Ashdown. The ex-Lib Dem leader managed to whip activists into a yellow-tinged frenzy this afternoon at a packed out polling discussion. Ashdown refuted that his party has been smothered with an ‘atmosphere of political gloom’ and ordered the rank and file to ‘ignore these polls and get on with the politics’. However, an overview of Times/Populus polling on voting intentions presented at the discussion highlighted how the Lib Dems’ fortunes have changed since the election:

Ashdown insisted this is nothing to worry about, citing Margaret Thatcher as an occasionally unpopular leader who was still able to win elections. With the ‘best party leader for 100 years’; Ashdown said he was confident that British public will come to a positive conclusion about the Lib Dem’s role in government:

‘Liberal Democrats shouldn’t be obsessed with opinion polls. We are in government, informed by liberal principles and our courage will take us right through to polling day…our electoral dividend then will be completely different from these [Populus] sets of figures’