We’ve heard about those disgruntled Tories, but what about the Lib Dems? After all, the local elections always used to be their psychic salve: they may have struggled to make much progress in general elections, but their fierce local activism could always be counted on to yield council seats. But now that’s less reliable a tonic. After today the party is going to have fewer than 3,000 councillors for the first time since the it was formed in 1988, losing overall control of Cambridge in the process There’s even talk that Brian Paddick will slump to fourth place, or possibly fifth, in the London Mayoral race.
Of course, all this is unsurprising: the Lib Dems have been struggling against a tide of national hatred and indifference for almost two years now. But it will ratchet up the pressure on Nick Clegg nonetheless. A more active ‘differentiation strategy’ is not yet paying the hoped-for dividends, it seems. And while some Lib Dems point out that they’re facing less anger on the doorsteps, that is hardly a substitute for actual votes in the bag.
As the FT’s Kiran Stacey points out, there hasn’t been a great outpouring of Lib Dem fury today, even if there have been one or two signs of unhappiness. But surely that will change if the party’s standing doesn’t as the next general election draws closer — and Clegg’s own position might become more precarious with it. The question for the next few weeks is what all this means for the coalition. Another round of differentiation, perhaps, with all the heartache that that brings?
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