Star gazing for the Lib Dems

Almost the entire time I have spent working for the Conservative party we have had misfortune after misfortune. Members of the party have been patient with the pace of change and now it is happening fast. Other parties have branded us all sorts of names and yet still a third of the voting electorate have supported us through thick and thin – a core vote the Lib Dems would die for.

It is therefore rather interesting to see the Lib Dems self implosion over their leadership. Unlike the Conservatives you get the feeling that they do not have the courage to knife their Leader and consequently their warfare will drag on. It has of course been dragging on for some time anyway. Even at the party conference in the Autumn there were rumblings. As always happens with a minor party they had dropped off the radar since the election and much of their dissent and warfare has gone on without anyone noticing. We have missed the resignation of the Lib Dem Deputy President citing her worry that the party was shifting right to capture Conservative votes. This resignation is important because like the past woes of the Conservatives the kernel was always the future direction of the party; Left V Right. The Lib Dems now have the same problem.

So who comes after? The Cameron calculation must be for Hughes to win. He would take the party left and alienate Conservative votes on loan to the Lib Dems. The so called centre right “orange bookers” feel they must move to the Conservatives, but will the hard core Liberals really stomach that? One of the issues the Lib Dems face is that they are of course an alliance of very different factions. Primarily this goes back to the Liberal/ SDP merger. What we might be seeing for once is the final coming together of the old Liberals and the former SDP members fighting against the new modernisers. The modernisers might make up the majority in Parliament but they sure do not control the grass roots.

I was too young to know too much about the turmoil of Labour in the late 70’s and have been on the receiving end of the Conservative turmoil of the last ten years. The Lib Dems laughed at us; having been there I can tell them it is not amusing

The picture here is Kennedy’s star chart. Below is one very interesting quote:

“Charles Kennedy's Moon and Pluto straddle either side of the Liberal Democrats' Midheaven. This speaks of an intense bond with the party's goals and mission. The downside of this is a difficulty in letting go in this area, and a problem with stepping back to take an objective view. The party's achievements and failures will be taken very personally by him.”