Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Rennard row weakens Lib Dem ‘we make govt better’ line

It’s been a while since the Liberal Democrats commanded quite so much media attention or quite so much space on the front pages. If all publicity were good publicity, the volume of coverage that the party is receiving from the Rennard scandal would do wonders for its poll rating.

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But that’s not how it works, and particularly not when your top brass has spent months trying to tell voters that the Lib Dems are so very grown up, mature and thoughtful that they’d make any government better. It’s a little more difficult to see this party as the special secret ingredient in a good coalition when all the talk is of the sort of confusing organograms that children might draw when devising secret societies, and when a row that could have quite easily remained an internal party matter had it been dealt with when the allegations were first made turns into a supernova of news.

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