Liberal democrats

Last week, Sir Vince Cable was appointed – unchallenged – as leader of the Liberal Democrats. While some in the party would have preferred a younger leader or at the very least a two-horse race, there is one thing they can all agree on: Cable comes with less baggage than his predecessor. There is a general consensus that the party’s ‘liberal’ appeal was not helped in the election by Tim Farron spending so much time talking about how gay sex and abortion fitted in with his Christian faith. But is it too early for the Lib Dems to breath a collective sigh of relief? A little (yellow) bird tells Steerpike that there is concern

So Vince Cable is now the new Lib Dem leader, after no-else opposed the 74-year-old Twickenham MP for the party’s top job. Of course, in the Lib Dems the ‘top job’ is a little less powerful than in other parties, thanks to a spider’s web of structures that mean the leader can’t always do what he (or maybe one day she) wants. But Cable clearly knows what he does want to do, which is to make up for the party’s miserable election campaign in which Tim Farron spent far too much time having to talk about gay sex, and the rest of his party spent far too much time trying

It’s the casualness with which they’re saying it that is truly disturbing. ‘I’m beginning to think that Brexit may never happen’, said Vince Cable on Sunday morning TV, with expert nonchalance, as if he were predicting rain. He echoed Newsnight’s Nicholas Watt, who a few days earlier informed viewers that there is talk in ‘some quarters’ that ‘Brexit may not actually happen’. Leaving the EU? ‘I think that is very much open to question now’, said Lord Heseltine last month, with imperious indifference. He could have been asking a minion to pass the butter. They say it matter-of-factly, sometimes a little gleefully. As if it wouldn’t be a disgrace, a

What a very different atmosphere the House of Commons Chamber will have today for its first PMQs since the election. In the week before Parliament dissolved, Tory MPs were in a most obsequious mood, reciting the ‘strong and stable’ slogan that Theresa May started her campaign with, and even telling the Prime Minister that ‘I am confident that the country will be safe after the election under strong and stable leadership’ (sadly Peter Lilley, who made this prediction, stood down at the election and so is not in Parliament to offer his insight into how he feels about the state of the country now). It will be interesting to see

There was a time when progressives thought that politics had become too much of an old boys’ club. In the place of ageing male politicians, liberals called for more women and ethnic diversity in politics. However, times are a’changing. After Jeremy Corbyn defied all expectations in the snap election by hoovering up 40 per cent of the vote, the Lib Dems could have found their own pale, male and stale answer to Corbyn: Vince Cable. The 74-year-old announced this morning that he is running to replace Tim Farron as Lib Dem leader. Cable said he was ready ‘to commit my energy, enthusiasm and experience to the task of leading the Liberal Democrats through

It feels like an age since I was knocking on doors in the pouring rain in the final hour before polls closed, then hearing the shock of the exit poll on the car radio heading home to a hairdryer and somewhat less bedraggled attire for the count. Yet here we are just a few days later, embarking on an election for leader of the Liberal Democrats. I went to see Tim on Wednesday afternoon to tell him I thought he should definitely stay on, and I was excited at the prospect of putting myself forward to be Deputy Leader.  I was stunned when he told me he would be resigning

The resignation of Tim Farron has left a bad taste in the mouth, don’t you think? There were a number of reasons why he was an unconvincing leader: the puppyish demeanour, the want of eloquence, style or confidence – even if you agree with him about Brexit, but they weren’t the reasons why he resigned. He was quite clear: the reason was “I have found myself torn between living as a faithful Christian and serving as a political leader,” he said in a televised statement. To be a political leader – especially of a progressive, liberal party in 2017 – and to live as a committed Christian, to hold faithfully

After a fairly disastrous general election campaign, Tim Farron has quit as leader of the Liberal Democrats. You can see why: he wanted to pose as the champion of Remain yet for for the first few weeks he seemed unable to move the conversation beyond his views on gay sex and marijuana. His attempt to rekindle the Brexit wars was a complete flop. The LibDems are an unlikely alliance of evangelical Christians and social liberals, and Farron’s appointment embodied a clash that the media delighted in exposing. He said, today, that has decided that the two are impossible to reconcile: “I have found myself torn, living as a faithful Christian and leading a political party

How deliciously tempting it must be to do as the Times and FT has done today, along with many others since last Friday, and try to interpret the election result as somehow a vote against Brexit – or against the withdrawal from the single market. ‘The notion of a ‘hard’ (to be precise, a dogmatic and ideologically driven) Brexit should be promptly abandoned’, asserts a leader in the Times, echoing the sentiments of Tim Farron, Nicola Sturgeon, Ruth Davidson and many others. How tempting – and how utterly wrong. The claim that the election result somehow undoes last year’s referendum result runs counter to the obvious evidence: that 84 per

From a very early age I’ve been put off by sanctimoniousness; it’s why, I think, I’ve never been attracted to the political Left, which when I was growing up was heavy on the finger-wagging, and why I find a certain style of newspaper column irritating. They remind me of the sour-faced old guys we used to see at church all in competition to see who could look the most serious and disapproving. This whole idea that if you don’t support Labour and the Left you’re not just wrong or misguided but a bad person is what puts me off; this Daily Mash article is depressingly close to reality in my

‘Strong and stable’, ‘weak and wobbly’, ‘coalition of chaos’: you’ve heard enough of the slogans. Now, election day is nearly upon us. Here’s the Spectator‘s guide to what to watch out for on the night as we find out whether Theresa May is heading for a big win – or an historic blunder: 10pm All eyes will be on the joint exit poll from the BBC, ITV and Sky. In 2015, this was the key moment for the Tories with the poll suggesting that the party was heading for a surprise majority. 11pm Houghton & Sunderland South – where Labour upped its majority in 2015 – is likely to be the

AN: Tim Farron, this election’s about electing MPs to sit in the British parliament, but you’re fighting on a manifesto which advocates UK laws being made in Brussels, having no control over immigration policy and for Britain to stay under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. Why? TF: The Liberal Democrats are campaigning in this campaign to trust the people, and we know that people voted to leave the European Union last June. I grew up with, you know, people who voted to leave. I completely respect those who did. Obviously a whole different view. The issue now is how do we move forward? And we know that

That the Tories would enjoy this general election campaign and Labour would spend it alternating between abject misery and total panic was a given from the moment Theresa May announced she wanted to go to the polls. More of a surprise has been how uncomfortable the Liberal Democrats have looked so far. Tim Farron has spent far too much time defending and then apparently recanting various unpopular beliefs. The party is averaging nine per cent in the polls. One analysis suggests they could end up with fewer than the nine seats they currently hold. What’s going wrong? Aside from Farron’s awkward media encounters over his religious beliefs, the party may

Tim Farron is in Bethnal Green tonight launching the Liberal Democrats 2017 manifesto. As the party try to keep hopes for a ‘Lib Dem fightback’ alive, the policies on offer appear to be aimed at winning the youth vote. They include introducing an NHS tax, raising £1bn in tax from proposals to legalise cannabis, help to get on the property ladder and bus passes for young people. However, it’s Brexit that lies at the heart of the manifesto — or, to be more precise, the party’s opposition to it. The Liberal Democrats say they would hold a second EU referendum on the final Brexit deal which would ‘give the final say to

Theresa May’s return to Downing Street on the morning of 9 June will surprise no-one, but there is one thing political commentators will be left to puzzle over: just why did the Liberal Democrats do so badly? Tim Farron’s party should be big winners in this general election. If not matching the 62 seats they won in 2005 or the 57 they notched up in 2010 they should at least be going a long way to reversing the collapse they suffered in 2015 as many of their voters punished them for their role in the coalition and for Nick Clegg’s backtrack on his tuition fees pledge in particular. Conditions are

Tim Farron has said the Lib Dems won’t be forming a coalition with Labour. But it seems Vince Cable didn’t get the memo. Cable has been taped suggesting that Lib Dem voters should back Rupa Huq, Labour’s candidate in Ealing Central. Here’s what he said: ‘I’ll just give one example – there’s Rupa Huq, who’s the candidate in Ealing. Purely but coincidence I found myself – I think it was on ‘Any Questions’ or one of those programmes in Warwick a few months ago, and I gave her a lift back home to Ealing. We talked for a couple of hours and it was very clear that on almost every