doctorvee

It looks like there’s going to be a debate on the future direction of the Liberal Democrats.

Whilst the Lib Dems must surely be happy, as I am, about their gains on Thursday, there must be worries about the long term. Most of the Lib Dems’ gains were from Labour, not the Conservatives as expected. The big swing of the night was clearly from Labour to the Lib Dems. Meanwhile, the overhyped ‘decapitation strategy’ — exaggerated by the media or not — backfired.

The only obvious explanation for this seems to be their policy of introducing a 50% top rate of tax. I didn’t expect it to be such a big issue, but it seemed to come under fire a lot from journalists (no doubt earning £100,000+ salaries (often funded by license-fee payers)) in the run up to the election.

I’m not sure that the Lib Dems could rely on keeping those disaffected Labour votes. I certainly would be uncomfortable with the Lib Dems becoming just a “left-wing alternative” to the Labour Party. Did the Lib Dems’ gains from Labour come as a result of genuine disaffection from the Labour Party, or were they merely protest votes. If it was the latter, the Lib Dems clearly can’t rely on keeping these seats. If it was the former, the Lib Dems must avoid falling into the trap of trying to out-Labour Labour.

I am one of those who believes that the old-fashioned left / right distinctions are irrelevant. In my view, the Lib Dems could solve their dilemma by being unashamedly liberal with their social policy, but centrist with their economic policy. And I’m not just saying that because that is in line with my personal views! Well, maybe I am.

I really couldn’t give two hoots about debates over capitalism versus socialism or public versus private. It reminds me a bit of those people who think that music created on computers isn’t “real music”. I mean, who cares about the process so long as it sounds good? I saw Norman Tebbit on television on Friday morning calling everybody who worked in the public sector Stalinist. I thought he could hardly be any more irrelevant. Who cares about the process so long as the results are good?

No doubt those on both the socialist and the libertarian ends of the spectrum would condemn this as proof that the Lib Dems are just wishy-washy, landing somewhere in between Labour and the Conservatives. If it happens to be the case that the Lib Dems’ economic policy ends up between Old Labour and the Conservatives, then fine.

As for having liberal social policy, it is the case that the Lib Dems broadly already occupy this ground. But they seem shy of advertising it; probably concerned about not being seen as “tough” on crime or whatever. But liberal social policies such as opposition to ID cards ought to get some votes from some of the slightly more libertarian Conservative voters who may be worried about the Conservatives’ seemingly never-ending descent into authoritarianism (support for ID cards and their anti-immigration stance, for instance). Those Conservatives who don’t move over are probably not liberals, and therefore a lost cause for the Lib Dems.

The problem with my entire idea is that this is not much different to the sort of position the Lib Dems have already taken. The Lib Dems seem to be at a crossroads. I hope they resist the temptation to put all their eggs in the one basket.