The Liberal Democrats’ Autumn conference ended just yesterday, 23 September. Apparently, this has temporarily reminded the big-brain political commentators that the Lib Dems exist. Not that that meant a break in the BBC’s breathless coverage of Reform, but still.
Lib Dems: a party, still
BBC political editor Chris Mason went with the headline “Punchy Lib Dems use Reform UK as call to action”:
Here was a leader knowingly painting in primary colours and determined to be heard in our noisy politics.
This was a gathering of a party willing to double down on being more aggressive in making its arguments – in particular, its focus on the Reform leader Nigel Farage.
The Guardian’sRafael Behr followed suit with “Resisting Faragism offers the Lib Dems a rare clarity of purpose”. Likewise, Sky News political editor Beth Rigby titled her piece “Why Ed Davey is taking the fight to Farage – despite the Lib Dems and Reform sharing few voters”. She stated that Davey was trying to ling Farage to Trump:
Lib Dem insiders tell me this strategy helps them kick on against the Tories in the Conservative heartlands that dislike Trump, while criticism of the US president and his sidekick Elon Musk also appeals to Labour voters who don’t much like Sir Keir Starmer’s kowtowing to Trump.
A quick glance at Davey’s Twitter timeline confirms the accuracy on that one:
Trump’s America, don’t let it become Farage’s Britain. https://t.co/HqPxtCRWGw
— Ed Davey (@EdwardJDavey) September 24, 2025
Standing up for basic science, because that’s the level we’re working at now:
First Trump slashed funding for vaccines research now he’s peddling dangerous nonsense about paracetamol.
The UK should take on Trump’s anti-science agenda and open our doors to US researchers. https://t.co/ovxSmVMtK2
— Ed Davey (@EdwardJDavey) September 23, 2025
I actually quite liked this dunk, for my sins:
I thought you didn’t believe in mental health? https://t.co/8iQZED5SBX
— Ed Davey (@EdwardJDavey) September 23, 2025
Truly a mystery
YouGov published an article asking “Why won’t people vote Liberal Democrat?” They even went so far as to call it “one of the big mysteries of the current voting intention landscape”. Matthew Smith, YouGov’s head of data journalism, went on to explain:
The Labour vote has fallen off a cliff, dropping from 35% of the vote in Great Britain at the election last year to just 21% in our latest voting intention poll. At the same time, the Conservatives have also slumped from an already poor 24% to 16%. But the Lib Dems’ vote share has been effectively immobile: the party won 13% of the British vote in 2024, and our latest voting intention figures have them at 14%.
Of course, the online research site also stated just last week that only 8% of the country believes that Ed Davey looks like a prime minister in waiting. By contrast, 37% of Brits don’t know what Ed Davey looks like at all.
So, apart from having the world’s most forgettable party leader, what exactly is the Lib Dem’s problem?
Following Labour’s recent lurch to the right, the slightly-left-of-definitely-right-of-center vote is already represented in parliament just fine. Davey faces stiff competition for ‘most ineffectual centrist’ when Keir Starmer is already in charge.
We already have a party in power that has nothing to offer except pointing at Farage and saying ‘the other guy is worse‘ – even if the prime minister is also trying desperately to hoover up the racist vote at the same time.
One of the few things that the desperately divided UK electorate can agree on is that politics is no longer a two-horse race. The people have grown tired of the Conservatives, and they’re rapidly growing tired of Labour too.
Politicians like the Greens‘ Zack Polanski and Your Party’s Sultana and Corbyn are offering a genuine break from the old politics – and also opposing the new faces of fascism while they’re at it. Somebody let Ed Davey know that we’re already at capacity for ‘the same, but with a twist’, please.
Featured image via the Canary
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