Getting things into perspective

Some retrospective thoughts on this week.

First of all, one of the most pithy and poignant postings came from Adrian Sanders MP who reminded us on his blog:

The only people who voted against such a referendum were Tory and Labour MPs - not a single Lib Dem voted to deny the people a vote.

Secondly, the article from Martin Kettle in today's Guardian should be required reading for all LibDems, as highlighted also by Stephen Tall on LibDem Voice and Peter Black AM.

Kettle argues that Nick Clegg did the best he could and that the week's events confirms that the other two parties are mightily concerned about the strength of the LibDems. The title of his article sums up his viewpoint: "This shambles is in fact a sign of LibDem strength":

No party can ever be satisfied with a shambles. Yet while acknowledging the damage, it is important also not to exaggerate it. The Lib Dems will recover. Nick Clegg's fledgling leadership is not at risk. Indeed Wednesday night's abstention and pro-referendum rebellion was probably the least worst option for the party. The free vote that some of Clegg's critics advocate on the Lisbon treaty referendum would have seen half of the party in the pro-referendum lobby and the other half, including Clegg himself, in the anti. The derision that would have greeted that damaging spectacle would easily have eclipsed the derision provoked by the abstention. And anyway, Europe isn't a free-vote issue.

This paragraph should be read by any Liberal Democrat who is despairing a bit:

...although both Labour and the Conservatives are keen to mock the Lib Dems, they do so because, in the end, they fear them - and with good reason. This is because the biggest shift in British voting patterns over the past half century has been the continuing erosion of the Labour and Conservative duopoly that claimed 97% of the votes in 1951, but only 67% in 2005, and the steady rise of the Liberal Democrats and the lesser parties which, conversely, have moved from 3% of the total to 33%.

Sometimes when I read LibDem blogs accusing Nick Clegg of "lies" and calling for his recall, I do have to do a reality check on myself. Am I on the same planet as other LibDem bloggers ?

I actually think Nick Clegg has done remarkably well this week. He has gone through a week where he had to show leadership and he has done so - masterfully.

And hey, look at me. A few months ago I was sarcastically posting about Nick under the title "The Messiah has arrived" and there was a posting asking "How low can Chris Huhne's supporters go ?" by the very person now calling for his recall, while I am posting under titles like "Well done Nick Clegg".

Politics is a funny business.