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| Nick Clegg wants to be seen as the Stop Farage candidate in the European elections. |
In perhaps the most cited speech of any Liberal leader, Jo Grimond closed the Liberal assembly in 1963, ahead of the 1964 election, with the promise: "I intend to march my troops to the sound of gunfire."
Nick Clegg, as he faces the European elections in May, has set his party on the same course. Faced with ever growing hostility to the EU, and to immigration, Clegg has decided to present the Liberal Democrats unambiguously as the party of "in" and of openness. He wants to be seen in these elections as the Stop Farage candidate and to make the debate about the very character of Britain. The planned TV debate with the Ukip leader will give him a chance not just to stand up to Farage, but to stand up for a Britain that does not want to hide.
There is an element of calculation in this. In a crowded field the Liberal Democrats risk being ignored and dumped into fourth place with Ukip replacing the Lib Dems as the amorphous party of protest. The Lib Dems may well be the party of in, but also come polling day the party of out, with all 12 of its MEPs expelled from the European parliament. It's not an outcome that Clegg discounts, saying simply if he is to lose any of his MEPs the thing he would hate most is losing them without a fight. » | Patrick Wintour, political editor | Friday, March 07, 2014
