A sad tale of unrequited love

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

On the eve of this week’s Liberal Democract conference in Bournemouth, the Tories are making advances on the Lib Dems with a series of articles and statements.

David Cameron has a piece in today’s Observer, which says:

“I don’t believe in drawing dividing lines where they don’t really exist. Politics works best when instead of hiding behind false divisions we seize opportunities to work together to get things done. That’s what Nick Clegg and I did with the Gurkha issue. We had different answers as to how best to repay those who had given our country so much, but we agreed the status quo was unacceptable, so we recognised it was best to work together, defeat the government and make them think again. That same spirit should exist between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats in other areas, too. That’s because on so many progressive issues, there is strong agreement between our parties.”

Meanwhile, Eric Pickles said on Friday:

“I believe there is a growing consensus about the kind of change our country needs – a consensus that unites Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.”

The love is unrequited, however, and Nick Clegg launched a fierce broadside against the Tories at a rally on Friday night, rejecting Tory advances. The Lib Dem leader said David Cameron is a “conman” and a “phoney” who wants to “destroy one of the cornerstones that protects British liberties in the Human Rights Act”, which Labour brought in in 1998.

Whatever happens over the next few weeks at the party conferences, we can be sure that talk of a hung parliament and Lib-Lab and Lib-Con pacts will be rife over the coming months.

If nothing else, it indicates that no party is yet entirely confident in ultimate election success – and that there’s still everything to play for.

Photo: .michael.newman, Flickr.