Lib Dem Voice co-editor Mark Pack was interviewed for BBC One’s The Politics Show (East) on what the mood of conference was likely to be. Here’s the write-up on the Beeb’s site:
The Lib Dem Party is in a pensive mood, we are told, by Mark Pack from Lib Dem Voice, a website for grassroots supporters. Although Lib Dems are pleased to be in government, they are not as upbeat as you may imagine at their first Conference in power for several generations.
There is a balance to be struck between finally pushing through Lib Dem policies and having to support a Conservative government intent on cutting public spending. It is a heady mix that could prompt confrontation. Implementing cuts at a local level that have been decided by your own government is already proving difficult for some Lib Dems to take.
You can watch Mark’s 3-minute interview here, and in particular admire the crow-barred chocolate/broccoli metaphor which somehow dodged the cutting-room floor.
5 Comments
If you want dodgy metaphors, here’s mine: I feel like a rabbit mesmerised by the glare of power, which may just turn out to be the headlights of a juggernaut that will flatten me. However, I’m not going to hop on a passing Labour bandwaggon, and if, in 2015, I am plastered all over the road I will make like Bugs Bunny, pick myself up, shake myself down, and start all over again.
“… if, in 2015, I am plastered all over the road I will make like Bugs Bunny, pick myself up, shake myself down, and start all over again.”
Sadly real life isn’t like the cartoons, though.
So far it’s a very, very small square of chocolate and a huge steaming portion of brussels sprouts (now I rather like broccoli, but sprouts are well beyond the pale. And they smell.)
Anthony Aloysius St – I’ve been a member of the Liberal Party since 1967; I spent all my spare time as a student for three years working at by elections and trying to build up other seats. It was three years before I worked somewhere that we won even at a council election. I have no desire to go back to that situation but I am not kidding myself that it couldn’t happen. If it does, I will still be there.
We’ve been getting our ‘five-a-day’ for nearly two years, it’s about time we had some movement.