Thing is their vote has been squeezed both ways

It's much harder for them to "triangulate", to borrow Blair's phrase: appear left-wing in Labour areas and right-wing in Tory ones. It's also harder for them to be a credible party of protest/target for tactical votes. So you're left with Lib Dem True Believers, of whom there aren't that many; the others break left or right. Plus the Greens and UKIPs are picking up the kind of young protest voters the Lib Dems used to hoover up.

Interesting call for them on whether they should join a new gummint or not. If they do they have to build up from a very low base. If they don't then what is the point of them - the term "radical liberal" doesn't have quite the currency it did a hundred years ago.

Posted By: Old Man, May 8, 01:39:48