What do the Lib Dems want out of life? It’s hard to be sure. They’re buzzing at the moment, assembling last weekend for a seaside conference two months after the most successful general election performance in their history. This maritime location gave their leader, Ed Davey, the perfect opportunity to show off his famed enthusiasm for water sports, a phrase which, in his case, could not be less sexual.
He arrived by jet ski to mild applause and some low-energy whoops, but he didn’t fall in the sea and nobody took the piss because, according to the new wisdom, you can’t argue with the electoral effectiveness of Davey’s splashing about. The party won more than six times as many seats as it had at the previous election and its leader’s otter-like frolicking, and the fun way it reminded the public that there are even nastier objects bobbing in our waterways than politicians, was what made the difference. Perhaps if Keir Starmer had deigned to put on a wet suit, he might have been as successful – which, pro rata, would have increased Labour’s complement of MPs to 1,322 rather than the paltry 412 it’s having to make do with.
But what are the Lib Dems’ hopes for the future? Does Davey plan to remain the UK’s most amphibious MP or was it just the sewage that drew him to the water? He announced last weekend that he wants the Lib Dems to become the party of rural voters who, he says, “need a party that understands them and is willing to stand up for them, and that’s what we’re going to........