Nick Clegg opened up the Lib Dem Autumn Conference (2010) with a rousing speech of achievements. Talking at the 1st conference in the last 65 years with the party in government, Nick Clegg reiterated the party’s crash into the 2 party dog fight that has been British government for so long. Using the speech to quell dissent from some quarters of the party, he rammed home with, “Liberal values at the heart of British government”.
Starting off with a summary of the party’s achievements over “just 4 months”, Clegg took the opportunity to remind party dissidents “to just stop… and enjoy that for a second”. Citing civil liberty protection and reforms to the criminal justice system, an end to child detention, “hundreds of thousands of the lowest paid workers out of tax all together” and the triple guarantee for pensioners, the speech was a rallying call for support.
However, the spending cuts that are at the heart of the unease in the party appear to be the compromise that has allowed 4 months of change, but it is a topic that did not surface overtly in the speech. However, when he talked about advocating pluralism in the government he may have been referring to the need for give and take from the party given their current situation, as well as it being better to be on the inside, influencing decisions, than on the outside complaining about them
While this will undoubtably have little influence on the more outspoken members of the party, the lengthy dedication to the Alternative Vote (AV) reform campaign, Yes to Fairer Votes, might just hold sway. If the Liberal Democrat Party can achieve some semblance of change to the way that the British government is elected then maybe all of the compromises will have been worth the losses, but only time will tell.
