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Today Nick Clegg was featured in the Independent spouting off about what kind of post election deal he would be looking for and so on, I am just not convinced and neither I suspect are the electorate at large. On top of that, I am not that sure that a “Hung Parliament” will actually come about either, I suspect that the public will choose between more of Brown and Labour or David Cameron.

The reality is that Clegg and the LibDems have failed miserably to capitalize on Labours weakened position over these past two years. By now in the polls, the LibDems should have pushed Labour into third place on a potential 17-18 percent of the vote and they haven’t.

The Ever Lost Party

One of the points made in a supporting editorial was that “at least the LibDems have spelt out their policies in terms of deficit reduction in detail which neither of the other two parties have. However, the reason that Clegg and Cable can talk about their policies in great detail is simply because they will never be called upon to enact them, as it has always been the case with them as a party. They are today reduced to a ‘bottom feeding’ role of scavenging for a slice of power in the event of a close poll and that is pretty pathetic.

This once was the leading edge of radical British politics but they lost that “Crown” to the Labour Party over 100 years ago and through a combination of a lack of discipline and poor Leadership, have never regained it since, one has to wonder why that is. Given that it has a broader appeal at the local level including in Scotland and Wales, one would have expected that those in the electorate who are fed up with Labour but would never vote Conservative, would be flocking to it in droves but they aren’t.

The LibDems should have made their “breakthrough” in the polls 12-18 months ago but they haven’t, does anybody seriously expect the public to have a sudden “conversion on the road to the Polling Station” come May 6th ? As for a hung Parliament, I’m not sure that the British electorate would like that and am certain that they wouldn’t take to coalition Government at all.

I still expect a Cameron Government with a working majority on a low poll turnout and frankly, the LibDems may well lose some seats rather than gain them.

The Problem for Third Parties

Back in the 1980s after going through a divorce and living in London, I had two “drinking companions” who were great fun and both members of the LibDems, I think one was on Camden Council. Between us we never discussed politics, our views being somewhat different but they were hilarious when talking to other people.

If the person was a Tory by nature they presented themselves as rather right wing, if a Labour supporter, they would present are rather left wing. When I took the hiss out of them, they told me this: “Wake up John, you have got to get Power before you can change the World…”

Any third party faces a major challenge because our politics are “bi-polar”, savage socialism or savage capitalism which in practice is not that “savage” in either direction because whoever is in power, their intent is moderated by common sense and a need for broad consensus. Even Thatcher in breaking the power of the Unions was tacitly supported by many Labour supporters.

But the point is, it is just this ‘moderation’ when in Government that makes it so difficult for any third party to find firm ground to stand on in delivering a distinctive political message or stance.

The real solution is for us the electorate to vote for local and independent candidates to represent us because that would break the power of all the political parties and without a “Party Machine” to protect them, our MPs would be answerable to us, we wouldn’t need PR at all.