It was a very timely caution regarding self-reinforcing over-comfortable group-thinking. Indeed many Republicans were shaken awake very abruptly after last year's US election having regarded every poll and trend through their own pink-shaded ocular apparatus.
The novel circumstances of Conservative-coalition-incumbency are little-precedented and surely leave little room for complacent assumptions. What is more, I don't sense public perception of any anchoring left/right-applicable LibDem theme for incumbency such as 'we are making them be sensible rather than doctrinaire'.
My own suspicion is that the party risks causing only enough friction in coalition to be perceived as grumbling-but-overridden: that may create more perception of inefficacy than of principle. Overcoming this would likely require focussing that friction around one or two broad-interest high-visibility issues which could convince 'centre' and 'soft-left' voters that Lib-Dem power could beneficially dampen the Left-Right pendulum. I'm not suggesting that party strategists will have overlooked the likely benefits of framing things in this way, but I have come across very few 'swing demographic' types who yet perceive the incumbency in such a light.
n.b. I click 'publish' just as Chris Huhne Guilty Plea Drama hits the news...
It was a very timely caution regarding self-reinforcing over-comfortable group-thinking. Indeed many Republicans were shaken awake very abruptly after last year's US election having regarded every poll and trend through their own pink-shaded ocular apparatus.
ReplyDeleteThe novel circumstances of Conservative-coalition-incumbency are little-precedented and surely leave little room for complacent assumptions. What is more, I don't sense public perception of any anchoring left/right-applicable LibDem theme for incumbency such as 'we are making them be sensible rather than doctrinaire'.
My own suspicion is that the party risks causing only enough friction in coalition to be perceived as grumbling-but-overridden: that may create more perception of inefficacy than of principle. Overcoming this would likely require focussing that friction around one or two broad-interest high-visibility issues which could convince 'centre' and 'soft-left' voters that Lib-Dem power could beneficially dampen the Left-Right pendulum. I'm not suggesting that party strategists will have overlooked the likely benefits of framing things in this way, but I have come across very few 'swing demographic' types who yet perceive the incumbency in such a light.
n.b. I click 'publish' just as Chris Huhne Guilty Plea Drama hits the news...