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New Lib Dem leader offers no great vision, no plans for alliances ... nothing much at all
Maybe a cardiograph could have picked up a hint of a heartbeat, but to the untrained eye the Lib Dem leadership contest appeared to have been flatlining almost from the start. It’s not as if the Lib Dems don’t try to provide excitement – this was the fourth leadership election in five years. And some of the party’s core membership might have picked up on fractious areas of dissent between Ed Davey and Layla Moran – at least 87 people tuned into one YouTube hustings – but the rest of us were either totally unaware the contest was taking place or just didn’t care one way or the other.
But all good things – and, indeed, all relatively indifferent things – must come to an end and in an online announcement shortly after 11.30 by the Lib Dem president, Mark Pack, it was revealed that Ed Davey was the winner. The same Ed Davey who had come a distant second to Jo Swinson last time round. The same Jo Swinson who had gone on both to lose her seat and all but obliterate the party in the polls in December’s election after insisting she was a genuine contender to become prime minister. Voters may be a bit dim at times, but not that dim. Continue reading...