It’s as exciting as a bowl of tofu, but the Lib Dem leadership contest matters a lot
‘You, my friends, are choosing a future prime minister!” declares one of the hopefuls to applause from the 450 activists who have come to hear the two contenders to be their party’s next leader. The audience in a lecture theatre at the London School of Economics asks thoughtful questions. The rivals, taking it in turn to answer, are unfailingly courteous towards each other. There is no shouting, interrupting or name-calling. I have heard ruder conversations between nuns. When one contestant speaks, the other spends a lot of time nodding along in agreement. They even smile at each other’s tepid jokes.
That’s enough clues for you to deduce that I am not talking about the gory competition to be chieftain of the rancorous Tory tribe. The event I attended one evening last week was a hustings between Jo Swinson and Sir Ed Davey, contenders to be the next leader of the Liberal Democrats. This contest is being neglected by the media and it is not hard to see why. Compared with the gristle and sizzle of the Tory struggle, the Lib Dem serving is as exciting as a bowl of tofu. Yet it is a mistake not to pay attention. The next Lib Dem leader could matter a lot. Consider these highly plausible scenarios for the near future: an autumn election, another hung parliament, a minority Corbyn government, a minority Tory government, a cross-party government, a second referendum on Brexit. In each case, the attitudes, skills and mettle of the next Lib Dem leader could be critical.
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