Avoiding career or leadership catastrophes: Part 4 (Liberal Democrats)

This is the 4th in a 6 part blog series on the lessons we can all learn from the varying fortunes of the recognised Parties in last Thursday's UK General Election.  Part 1 explained the neuroscientific reasons why emotions and primeval instincts will always obliterate rational argument.  Part 2 analysed the Conservative Party's success and Part 3 the Labour Party's spectacular failure. 

The vast majority of voters who elected 58 Lib Dem MPs and put them a close 2nd in many other seats in 2010 jilted them for two reasons:

• The Lib Dems embarked on a 5 year 'affair' with the Conservatives, otherwise known as coalition government. Many commentators have observed since the Party's debacle on Thursday that it was the right thing to do for the country.  Contrary to voters’ instincts it was selfless, not lustful power-grabbing.  Frankly the Lib Dems had no logical choice. It’s now well documented for instance that Labour offered no concrete, credible, alternative coalition path.  However, the Lib Dems have paid a savage price.  In 2010 many left-leaning voters saw them as far more credible than Labour but were aghast after the election when they parleyed with the Conservatives.  They have not been forgiven,

• Similarly of course the Lib Dems have been savaged for the last 3 years for breaking their 2010 manifesto pledge not to increase university tuition fees.  Again I suspect they had no choice, in which case it was a catastrophic error to have promised it in the first place.  But that's 20:20 hindsight - they could not have foreseen when they made their manifesto commitment that they'd end up in government with the Conservatives.  NO-ONE foresaw that!!  

There was an overwhelming, indeed at times hysterical, outpouring of bile and hatred towards the Lib Dems, and their leader Nick Clegg, for one simple reason.  To adapt a well-known proverb:

Hell hath no fury like an electorate (apparently) betrayed!!!

Like many others listening on BBC Radio Five Live I was moved by Nick Clegg's dignified, statesmanlike, yet distraught resignation speech on Friday morning.  Kicking him has become a national sport for the lobotomised for the last 3 years,  I'm not suggesting he shouldn't be criticised but much of it has gone way beyond that meted out to most politicians, which is bad enough.

I'm sure there were many mindless, insensitive idiots listening who felt a puerile sense of glee over his resignation.  One of them, a crude SNP barbarian, sorry, spokesman, expressed wildly disparaging remarks.  This particular idiot had neither the wit, grace, nor compassion to respect a good man's downfall, irrespective of political differences. He exemplified the reasons for the disgust with which millions of English voters, includng Anglo-Scots, view the SNP.

If that’s the shape of things to come from North of the Border, along with the rabid, spitting rodents who gate-crashed one of Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy’s rallies, then the shiny veneer of pristine respectability presented by Nicola Sturgeon and her thousands of enthusiastic and ‘apolitical’ new recruits is, at best, a naive sham.  Whilst I'm not for a moment equating the two, I suspect I'm not alone in seeing certain disquieting parallels between this tsunami of hubristic Scottish national socialism, in which everyone's welcome in Alex and Nicola's brave(heart) new tartan utopia unless they, erm, disagree, in which case intimidation and even death threats are 'appropriate' (as Glasgow lingerie entrepreneur Michelle Mone will attest) and, well......National Socialism, if you see what I mean. 

Commenting on Nick Clegg’s resignation speech immediately afterwards the voice of John Pienaar, BBC Radio Five Live's veteran Chief Political Correspondent, almost cracked – for an instant I thought he was going to break down.  He conveyed a palpable sense of outrage and injustice, all the more so because he contained himself completely, and spoke eloquently.

Pienaar opined that history would judge Clegg's selfless work as Deputy Prime Minister far more kindly than the electorate, driven by a primeval bloodlust (my analogy, not his), had done.  Labour and Conservative MPs paid tribute to Clegg, not least David Cameron, who I long sensed had developed respect for him working alongside him in government.  Clegg’s mentor, Paddy Ashdown, described him as the ‘decentist’ (sic) man in British politics.

Sadly the Lib Dems failed to understand that politics is fundamentally driven by raw, untrammelled instinct and emotion, not sensible, moderate, progressive ideas and values which they attempted to argue for.  Punishment by voters for their perceived ‘crimes’ was always likely to be vicious – the political equivalent of a lynching. 

In retrospect Nick Clegg should have resigned on principle ('fallen on his sword') when he realised he would have to break his tuition fee pledge.  That would have paid the necessary price so his Party could recover reasonably under a new leader by the time of this election.  I don’t particularly blame him for failing to do so – he felt he could do more good by staying on in government, and history may well judge that he did.  But the personal and party political cost has been horrific.  I hope he will bounce back in some way – he’s one of dozens of highly competent politicians of all persuasions who, over the years, have not survived judgement day in the amphitheatre facing carnivorous voters.

When I think of the Lib Dems my first reaction is that they are too decent, too nice, and simply not ruthless and strong enough to survive the political jungle.  This election came perilously close to finishing them off altogether.

A good analogy for where the Lib Dems are, and where they need to be, is the book 'Give and Take' (Adam Grant, 2013).  Grant's research found that 'Givers' are the bottom 25% in all walks of life, essentially because they are too weak and/or too nice.  This is the risk that the Lib Dems run constantly, like antelopes trying to stay ahead of lions.  However, Grant found that the top 25% happiest, highest performers were smart givers, NOT takers or matchers (matchers are people who negotiate quid pro quos).

The Lib Dems have now had valuable experience of Government, and of the brutal electoral consequences that can follow it.  They need to become far tougher and more streetwise, be willing to identify weaknesses in their opponents and go for the jugular.

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