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Life on Mars with the Federal Executive

January 21st, 2011 Posted in Liberal Democrats, Opinion by

It’s notable that the highest Liberal Democrat governing body, the Federal Executive,  is deemed so important by the governed, that their page on the party website has not been updated since July 2008.

To get some sense of who is on it today you might go to the internal election fan siteof Councillor Colin Rosenthiel, or find a back-issue of Lib Dem News, the equivalent of hiding the results in a locked cupboard marked ‘Beware of the Leopard’.

So effective is the Federal Executive, that the Leadership set up an appointed Chief Officers Group in 2008 to get stuff done, rather than just talk about it. This leaves the FE with a somewhat nebulous role in debating political strategy and no power to implement it.

An example of this can be seen in today’s Guardian that reports:

“Liberal Democrats to fight next election as totally independent party”

“Party executive agrees to fight next general election campaign with ‘no preference for potential future coalition partners’ and reasserts party’s left-of-centre roots”

“Conference re-asserts that the UK Liberal Democrats are based firmly in the historical and global traditions of the liberal and social democratic philosophy”

On the last point first, just how dead does the SDP parrot have to be before the FE pop the corpse in the swing bin? I’m almost surprised the sentence didn’t conclude with an attack on Thatcherism and worries about whether phone privatisation is really working.

Further the end of history implications that no relaigments mattered before the Alliance, none since, and definitively no more in future, concluding with a call for “modern liberalism” makes no sense.

On the first point, the reality of political campaign planning means that come late 2014/15, when the Party Leader, Chief Executive and hundreds of local organisers are deciding what to do and say, this statement of intent in January 2011 will have no meaning or force.

How close or not the party wishes to be seen to the Conservatives, Labour, others or none will in no small part depend on what those parties do. Are we for example really saying that if either main party split, as say happened with the formation of the SDP, we wouldn’t be interested in collaboration with the more liberal faction.

More to the point why isn’t it explicit political strategy to encourage that outcome?

We cannot move from third place by organic growth. Running incremental by-elections worked poorly in opposition and won’t work at all in Government.

The Conservatives further are quite nakedly running a “hug them close” strategy with the party mainstream in order to encourage a National Liberal realignment and antagonise the left.

Nick Clegg should reverse this discomfort. I’d like to see more statements welcoming centrist Conservatives embrace of liberal democracy, and offering a home to New Labourites abandoned by the double-Eded-disaster leading their party.

If the Federal Executive had an ounce of political guile they’d be poking a stick at the fragility of the Conservative and Labour coalitions, rather than amplifying concerns about our own

But I fear this latest statement has once again shown a group obsessed with internal positioning, persistently fighting the last war, and adding little value to the party’s growth and progress. Give them a real internal scrutiny purpose, or scrap it. Save the Cowley Street biscuit budget for something more useful.

5 Responses to “Life on Mars with the Federal Executive”

  1. Steve Travis Says:

    “Nick Clegg should reverse this discomfort. I’d like to see more statements welcoming centrist Conservatives embrace of liberal democracy, and offering a home to New Labourites abandoned by the double-Eded-disaster leading their party.

    If the Federal Executive had an ounce of political guile they’d be poking a stick at the fragility of the Conservative and Labour coalitions, rather than amplifying concerns about our own”

    Andy – I couldn’t agree more. It is exactly this sort of large-scale Liberal realignment that the more imaginative of our party should be making happen.


  2. Tricky Dicky Says:

    “I’m almost surprised the sentence didn’t conclude with an attack on Thatcherism and worries about whether phone privatisation is really working.”

    Priceless. LOL.

    Frankly the Fed Exec is a waste of space. Wasn’t it those armchair ministers that saddled the party with the loony HE fees pledge? That has busted their policy street cred permanently in my eyes. The Exec should be abolished so its members can go back to their consistencies to prepare for obscurity.


  3. Andy Mayer Says:

    To be fair to the FE I can see a proper role for it acting as a genuinely independent scrutiny panel for the party’s leadership and operations.

    If that happened it would be definitively behind the scenes and a useful check and balance.


  4. Tricky Dicky Says:

    Well much of the party’s structure is more geared to activism and opposition. And some can’t move their minds from opposition to government. How the hell we are going to disassociate ourselves from the Coalition’s record so we can campaign as a bunch of pristine virgins remains to be seen. We will be tied to the Tories by our joint record which we will have to defend. These sort of pronouncements from the inner sanctum of the Fed Exec are not practical politics. They might see it as keeping the flame alive but really all they are is a bunch of embarrassing Roger Irrelevants. The public thinks we’re clowns. Just look at the comments on the Guardian story.


  5. S McG Says:

    Excellent!