Clegg’s attacks on Labour will turn voters away from the Lib Dems

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Nick Clegg has finally realised that the strategy in government needed to change. He now needs to realise that his strategy towards Labour needs to change as the current one will only make them stronger and their supporters more supportive. This is digging a hole for the Lib Dems who share a proportion of voters and will want more Labour supporters to vote for them if they want to increase their presence in British politics.

Nick Clegg today attacks the Labour party for being ‘old’ progressives and pronounces the Lib Dems as ‘new’ progressives. After not wanting to pick ‘synthetic’ fights with the Tories, he seems to want to pick fights with the Labour party. The problem is that when he attacks the Labour party, he is attacking those who vote for them, support them or sympathise with them. It sounds very much like ‘old’ politics and it is difficult to see how we can build the plural, new progressive politics which he so wishes.

Perhaps he would be wise to note the research by Northwestern University who have found that when people’s confidence in their beliefs is shaken, they become stronger advocates for those beliefs. They carried out three experiments involving issues such as animal testing, dietary preferences, and loyalty towards Macs over PCs. In each one, they subtly manipulated their subjects’ confidence and found the same thing: when faced with doubt, people shout even louder.

People feel discomfort when they try to cope with conflicting ideas. This feeling is called Cognitive dissonance and people will go to great lengths to reduce this conflict. Altering one’s beliefs in the face of new evidence is one solution but for many this is too difficult. The alternative is to try and gain social support for your ideas. If other people also believe your idea, the internal conflicts will lessen.

Doubt turns people into stronger advocates and this effect is stronger if someone’s identity is threatened, if the belief is important to them, and if they think that others will listen. Just look at this response to Nick’s article. If you want more Labour voters, or potential voters, to ignore what the Lib Dems are saying, then the approach of attacking them is a great way to go.

So if the end game is to make Britain a more progressive and liberal country as Nick Clegg seems to want

But I am convinced that even in these difficult times, the prospects for a plural, new progressive politics are bright.

Then it would be a better approach to look for similarities, shared values, shared goals, show people that voting for the Lib Dems is not a challenge to their identity or a betrayal of their background. The Lib Dems start from a smaller base than Labour and the Tories and only through widening our appeal will people want to vote for us. We need to appeal to Labour voters not turn them away.