Tim Farron has won,but not many people will envy him his prizeWhen Nick Clegg resigned as the Liberal Democrat leader in May, he spoke of forces that had combined in the electoral demolition of his party: the surge in Scottish nationalism, and the backlash it provoked in England and the exploitation of those sentiments by Conservatives. It was,he said, a “perilous point in our history where grievance and apprehension combine to drive our different communities apart”.
It was an eloquent (expressing yourself readily, clearly, effectively) performance and partly persuasive. There is an argument to be made that intolerant forces are on the rise, and expressed in authoritarian responses to terrorism threats (not to mention the fascistic ideology of the terrorists themselves),lack of compassion for the poor, and dehumanising apprehension of migrants. But it would be wrong to conflate general challenges for liberalism with the specific problems of the Lib Dems. Social and economic liberalism also flourish in many areas of public life. Mr Cleggs political humiliation followed bad choices he had made, or not just cultural trends over which he had no control.
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Source: theguardian.com