What is the purpose of any political party? It depends on how you look at it, but given the way our democracy (such as it is) works, if the point of a party is to have a real impact then that can only achieved by being in power.
In that sense, then, the Liberal Democrats have achieved their aim for the first time in many, many years. They have a share of power and are able to implement some of their most cherished policies. The counterpoint to that, however, is that as part of the government they share in the poor mid-term electoral performance of just about every government.
The plain fact is that the British hate their government, they always do, whatever the flavour. The problem for the LibDems is that they've always been seen as the plucky underdogs, the "good guys" of politics who would never get in. And when they formed a coalition with the true "bad boys", the public expected them to prevent any unpopular policies, standing like a political shield between the great British voter and the worst excesses of rampant Toryism.
So, the Student Loan fiasco was seen as a betrayal by the LibDems even though it was a Tory extension of a Labour-created policy (a policy Labour expressly said it would NOT implement in its 1997 manifesto).
To a very real extent, it doesn't matter that the LibDems are being slaughtered at the polls. If the ultimate purpose of the party is to be in power and to enact its policies then it has achieved that. What it must NOT do is waste the opportunity to have an impact out of fear of the electoral consequences either locally or nationally.
As it happens, the best chance the LibDems have of staying in power after the next election is if they have enacted clear, important, meaningful policies that would clearly not have been implemented by the Tories.
So far, we have one: the massive rise in personal tax allowance. Had the Tories been in power on their own, they would have reduced tax from the top down (as they always have) rather than from the bottom up. By the time of the election, people on low to moderate incomes will be hundreds and hundreds of pounds per year better off because of this one policy. It's an absolute winner.
But it's only one thing. We need more. Whilst reform of the House of Lords is important to me, it simply doesn't register with most people (sadly).
Promoting and supporting the employment of young people is a good thing but the results aren't clear to the general public and the LibDems are still not closely enough associated with it. The Pupil Premium is having a real effect on my small local primary and yet we hear NOTHING about it.
My advice? Focus on the young and old - be distinctive. Influence policy on the old in a distinctly LibDem way to put money back in their pockets or make their lives easier in a tangible way.
Come the next election, it must be possible to say "we did this" and to list at least 5 things that are clearly LibDem derived and have tangible benefits that most people will feel. So far we have one. If, when that election comes, the party is slaughtered at the polls, but has achieved something with its power, it won't have failed.
However, if it's slaughtered having underachieved because it had an eye on political survival, that is unforgiveable and I'll be the first to end my lifelong association with the party.
