Hand of history

IF, during the election campaign, few voters secretly suspected that Nick Clegg – despite his claims – would play much part in the haggling after May 6, then even fewer can have suspected that Jo Grimond would have an influence on the process.
By The Newsroom
Published 16th May 2010, 23:21 BST

Yet it is the name of the late Liberal leader, who stepped down in 1967, which is being evoked as today's Liberal Democrats agonise over coalition with the Conservatives. That such a deal has already been agreed added just more rancour to their special conference in Birmingham yesterday. The statement by Charles Kennedy, the former Lib Dem leader, that he refused to vote for a coalition deal which "drove a strategic coach and horses" through the centre-left tradition fostered "since the Jo Grimond era" underlines the awkward task facing Mr Clegg. As Deputy Prime Minister, the Sheffield Hallam MP has to stay on good terms with everyone from popular backbenchers like Mr Kennedy to Right-wing Cabinet colleagues like Iain Duncan Smith, against whom he has been campaigning.

Listening to his own party is essential to this process. Having negotiated a high level of power for himself, and antagonised parts of his membership, Mr Clegg must continue to show respect for the voters and activists who helped to carry him to the heart of Government.

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They will not thank him for the 6bn of Conservative cuts which he has rubber-stamped, but they must accept that during the campaign and in its immediate aftermath, he has won a degree of influence, and several Tory policy concessions, of which they would hardly have dreamt just a couple of months ago.

Mr Clegg has earned the right to make the coalition work but would do well to continue listening to Lord Ashdown, Mr Kennedy and Menzies Campbell, the "three wise men" who preceded him and who are well-placed to take the temperature of this incredibly broad party.

Related topics:Iain Duncan SmithLiberal Democrats