That’s the Liberal Democrat’s today and they are not making a comeback.
I have blogged about the Liberal Democrat’s before but it seems things are just going from bad to worse when the best they can do is to have Willie Rennie call Nicola Sturgeon a liar within the protected space of the chamber, is anyone really surprised by that. The party who are currently languishing at 7% in the polls ,
and the hopes for a Brexit bounce and the election of Vince Cable (the man who did not predict the financial crisis) as leader has turned more and more people away from the party. The party has continued to lose votes at each General Election since 2010 and that looks like it will continue.
People haven’t forgotten the student loans betrayal and never will but it’s more than that. Nick Clegg was a huge mistake, electing a Tory as leader after stabbing a truly decent leader in Charles Kennedy in the back was the start of their irrelevance. Having a deputy leader in Jo Swinson who is just not any good and has been shown to be as vacuous a politician as you can get just adds to their woes. Throw in Willie Rennie, branch manager of the Scottish Lib Dem’s, and Alex Cole Hamilton MSP and you have a huge problem of the blind leading the blind. The Scottish party sit at 6% in the polls and in Willie Rennie have a leader who can only get air time when he calls the First Minister a liar, and he doesn’t even get much from that.
Now I was briefly a member of the party, for around 6 months. I met some good people, a friend who is a member and active in the party and who could be a part of its future is sidelined because he doesn’t fit in with the Tory element of Rennie, Swinson and Hamilton. Throw in the continued support for the liar Carmichael and it’s hard to see them going anywhere but down.
It doesn’t have to be that way though, Scotland and the U.K. are very liberal in the main, liberalism would have a role and a future in an independent Scotland and that should be the line in the sand. They should fight to create a liberal agenda in an independent Scotland but as long as the party cling to a dying union and Tory policies with Tories leading the party they will remain an irrelevance.
grumpyscottishman.wordpress.com 
I am often feeling this way in the party just now and it is a real shame as Scotland and the UK as a whole as a gaping liberal hole in its heart that needs filled by a proper centre party. There is a way to be pro UK without being like Rennie etc but they can’t see it and I have tried to make changes but it’s very hard.
However, I think the results at city council level in Dundee last year prove that hard, honest work connecting with the voters makes a difference
DCS
Not sure there is a gaping liberal hole in the UK but there is a place for liberalism in Scotland and especially social liberalism. The problem is the people at the top of the party, as long as the members keep electing people like Rennie and Swinson then there is little hope for an improvement in it’s fortunes, Labour will win England and Wales and Scotland will be pretty much SNP/Tory for the longer term. It’s a pity as there are some decent people in the party.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
I live in East Dunbartonshire where they have constantly voted with the Tories against the minority SNP administration. The final straw being when they voted with them to change the terms of conditions for the council workers without consultation which led to the SNP stepping down. They then refused to form an administration with their Tory pals and have left the council in limbo. I’m sure there are still good people in the party but they are led by political opportunists with absolutely no principles. Having the biggest opportunist of all in Swinson as my MP truly rankles with me.
Smac1314
As you might have guessed, I am Grumpy’s friend who is an active member of the party. My username is a long running joke between Grumpy and I.
I agree with you that we are led by opportunists at the moment, which is a shame as we have had some great leaders, Charles Kennedy and Paddy Ashdown were good men in my own view. I stood last year in the City Council elections and lost by 9 votes in the end, and the reason my vote increased was because I focused on what I do, not what other parties do. The party leadership are right to criticise and hold to account but we never seem to produce the alternative. If Willie stood up and said we think “x” was a mistake, and this is what we would do instead, then fair play but it is always SNP bad with the current leadership when actually we should be working together. We will never agree on everything but we can work together, well at least that is my view. I wouldn’t go into coalition with anyone, I would take each vote as it comes.
I think Tim Farron could have been a lot better but he is too nice, Vince Cable is not nasty or an opportunist, just past it in my own view but to be honest, who else? As far as Nick Clegg goes, he could have been so so much better. He was more naive than a tory, in my own view. The tory was Danny Alexander.
But that’s just me.
Scotland and the UK needs Liberals, there is a liberal hole in the heart of the UK just now.
Smac1314
What is happening in East Dunbartonshire is a joke, the yoons basically have blocked all of the SNP efforts as far as I can see and are now calling them cowards for walking away from an impossible situation while blaming Holyrood for the cuts when we all know that the cause is Westminster and the 3 Tory Parties. It’s a joke and just shows even more that Scotland needs to be independent of the rest of the UK.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
Lib-dems thought they would make a killing by suggesting a second referendum no one can mimic the SNP on referendums Mr Vince Cable you just don’t have the members support. The Tories are all but shiting on themselves over Brexit and yet the Red-Tory cant even over take the the Blue-Tory in an opinion poll.
100%Yes
Brexit is a mess. I listened to 20 minutes of the Lords debate this afternoon and the really sad part was that many of them were making far more sense than Parliament. There could be a referendum on the deal but I’m not so sure it will make any difference, there is no going back now and I doubt the EU would want to anyway. Even if it was possible the English won’t accept free movement and the Euro and that would be a must for U.K. to stay in. Total shambles. The Lib Dem’s thought it would get them votes, they didn’t really get anything and are losing members to Labour, who as you say are just red Tories. Blind leading the blind.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce