Cable slips

The immediate reaction to the trails of Lib Dem party leader Vince Cable's direction-of-travel speech of last Friday morning was that these were just to provoke interest, and that the likelihood of non-members choosing the next leader was mischievous speculation. Alas, the latter turned out indeed to be part of Vince's vision of a future Liberal Democrat party. It should be emphasised, though, that this is still just a proposal and would require conference approval. (Unlike Conservative "conferences", which are merely rubber-stamping rallies, Liberal Democrat conference really does set and approve party policy.)

One can imagine a flood of entryists installing Tommy Robinson or Geoffrey Boycott or some other reactionary figure who has just happened to be in the current headlines. The dangers of allowing registered followers of the party to elect the leader are not merely theoretical. The US system of choosing party candidates is based on it, producing such populist presidents as Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, with damaging effect on the economy. In this country, we have seen the anti-establishment Jeremy Corbyn sweep to power in the Labour party and potentially split it in the process. So you can count me as anti-Vince on this one.

But I welcome Vince's restatement of some core principles:

First, I want to bring values back into our politics providing a rallying point for those who are committed to defend liberal democracy; challenge extremes of inequality and barriers to opportunity; uphold our civil liberties; maintain an open, outward looking country and protect our environment.

My colleagues and I have sought over the last year to demonstrate how we can put those values into action in respect of the economy and tax policy, the housing crisis, schooling, the new data technologies, the governance of companies, and much else.

even though the speech itself is heavily weighted towards process. The idea of recruiting followers is certainly worth trying, though one trusts they would be more regularly kept up-to-date - with minimal propaganda! - than members are at present.

You can read the full thing here.