Simon Heffer

The dustbin party

The Lib Dems are a mess of contradictions, says Simon Heffer. They want to build and conserve; they want to decriminalise cannabis and ban smoking in public places. Disenchanted Tories should not be seduced

issue 18 January 2003

Her Majesty’s Government is in a right mid-term mess. The public services don’t work, despite all the extra cash being thrown at them. The public has, according to a poll last weekend, completely lost confidence in the forces of law and order. Illegal immigration continues unchecked. The gap between revenue and expenditure is expanding. Mr Blair is losing the support of his party, and Mrs Blair is the public’s choice to be deported. Another opinion poll shows the gap between Labour and the Tories to be a mere 5 per cent.

However, while the government’s support is collapsing, the Tories’ is hardly shifting upwards. Disillusioned voters are either swelling the ranks of the millions who do not participate in the political process, or they do something even more inexplicable: they decide to support the Liberal Democrats.

For some time now, seeking to capitalise on the difficulties facing the Tories, the Lib Dems’ affable leader, Charles Kennedy, has been talking of his party as ‘the opposition’.

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