Ideas from the Tory Party on increasing Lib Dem membership

Christopher Shale is all over the news for many reasons but he did pose some very interesting points about Conservative Party membership in which he sought for to achieve a transformational increase in membership. His points equally apply to the Lib Dems and we could learn a lot from where he started which was asking people to complete the sentence ‘I should join the Liberal Democrat Party because …’

His conclusion to this sentence was that membership of the Conservative Party was deeply unappealing, and I would have to agree with him. He believes that the claimed benefits of party membership  –  the right to attend party conference, take part in selecting our MPs, and so on – are of zero interest to most current, let alone potential, members. He saw that joining meant losing intellectual independence and being forced to do things they did not want to like leafleting or canvassing. He believes that “literally 98% of Tory voters are politics light” – meaning they are not really interested in politics and find heavy politics a big turn-off.

He wanted the Conservative Party to give an undertaking to: raise money by earning it, not begging it. Not ask people to sign up anything onerous like agree with all our policies or defend us when they think we’re wrong. Not to pressgang people into activism. For people to have the option to keep their membership private and have the ability to leave at a moment’s notice.

His solutions were getting into the events management business: a day in HMP Wormwood Scrubs, an evening with a non-politician celebrity, a great debate modelled loosely on the Oxford Union, a day watching prime minister’s questions. He also promised one social action element far removed from the stereotypical spectre of marauding hordes of Tories.

Perhaps the Lib Dem Party is in a different position to the Conservative one but membership of political Parties are much of a muchness to the general population. There has to be a pay-off for someone to join and this was his point – what can they offer people who do not see leafleting or campaigning as a pay-off? So what can the Lib Dems offer to such people? I advocate a more targeted approach to specific audiences as I believe this yields actual members quicker than broad-big-idea membership drives.

Putting on events is a good idea as it gives a chance to promote the Party. Joining/collaborating with events that are going to happen already gives a wider audience. Shale’s idea of debates is a good one and particularly where there are colleges and universities. Mark Pack wrote some good ideas recently to make your AGM better and this gives some good ideas generally in attracting people to events. I have written about attracting those interested in politics here into becoming members.

In finishing the question ‘I should join the Liberal Democrat Party because …’ the answer may be different for different people but it will also essentially be the same. It will be the same reason anyone who joins a club – for the social reasons as well as the other benefits. And this is the key to increasing membership – make it fun, develop relationships in the party and people will want to join.

Polls show mistrust in Lib Dem talent: Changes needed in Lib Dem mindset to gain electoral success

YouGov shows that the public do not believe that the Lib Dems are led by people of ‘real’ ability. This is a worry as the Lib Dems’ short and medium term future depends on the perceived success or failure of our role in the Coalition Government. So does our success in the Coalition Government depend on the perceived talent of the Lib Dems? Are there things which the Lib Dems could do which would improve the perception that they have talent?

This research from Harvard University may give us reason to worry

Chia-Jung Tsay and Mahzarin Banaji presented more than 100 professionally trained musicians with two profiles of two professional musicians, and a sample musical clip to listen to from each musician. The participants were then asked questions about how talented and successful they perceived the performer to be, and how willing they might be to hire this person. In fact, both clips were the same musical excerpt, and the profiles differed only in their mention of whether the musician had natural or learned talent. The results ultimately showed two effects: “We found even in experts and ostensibly professionally trained musicians, most of them could not tell that the recordings were the same. And on average, people seemed to prefer the ‘naturally’ talented individual, even when they said they believed hard work was more important than natural talent.”

While it may suggest that people may trust people more with perceived natural talent it does offer the Lib Dems a unique opportunity to show that they are indeed a different kind of political party. The research by Carol Dweck shows how this can be achieved. She distinguishes between two types of beliefs about human capabilities and traits. The first is what she calls a fixed mindset: those who see their capabilities as unchangeable and assume that how capable you are is largely determined by a natural talent which cannot be developed. The second belief is a growth mindset: those who view their capabilities as a potential which can be developed. Her research has shown the following differences:

A fixed mindset culture encourages internal competition, defensiveness and an emphasis on judging people. We don’t need to go far before we see this as the norm in political culture and the Lib Dems have fallen into the trap of this mindset too often. If we continue down this road then we will not learn the lessons we need to learn to improve our performance, the Government or the poll ratings.

A growth mindset culture encourages cooperation, openness and an emphasis on learning. By developing a growth mindset culture we will improve where we are now and we will be seen as different by the public. The Lib Dems campaigned on being different only to then begin to sound very much like the Tories or Labour because we fight and bicker in the same manner as they do. Nick Clegg often berates Labour and dismisses complaints. An open, plural politics is not based on berating other parties, it is based on learning from their mistakes, being open to why people want to vote for them and showing we care about their concerns. This can only be achieved with a growth mindset otherwise we preach to the converted – as we did in the AV referendum.

To develop a growth mindset we need to start seeing that criticism of the Lib Dems offers us lessons. We need to show that we are listening and taking action to improve. We need to show that we believe that we can learn and grow as a Political Party and that our ministers are able to do the same.

Feedback can be motivating or demotivating and the way we receive feedback influences how we think about our capabilities. Negative feedback can threaten people’s sense of competence and the relationship you have with them. Positive feedback supports people’s sense of competence, is motivating and supports relationships and performance. However, a fixed mindset will become defensive in the face of negative feedback which will not win over any voters and we will not learn from what they are saying. While a growth mindset will allow for us to listen to what the public are saying and learn and adapt showing our growing capability in Government.

The importance of this cannot be understated. The Labour Party were kicked out in part because the public believed they had run out of ideas i.e. closed with a fixed mindset. If we want to improve our perception in the public’s eye, if we want to improve our performance, and if we want to work better in Government (something we have not done for 60 years) then having a growth mindset will produce success and provide us with a strong political narrative come 2015:

We entered government for the good of the country. We made coalition work. We have done some things well and made many improvements. We have learnt from our mistakes and have shown we are capable of listening to the people and delivering strong and necessary reforms.

A sad tale which shows an urgent need to reform the civil service

The public blame Political Parties for mistakes made by Governments and in many cases they are absolutely right. However, dig a little deeper and you find a much sadder tale of how governments are run which end up producing some of the bigger catastrophes. This needs urgent reform or in the very least the Lib Dems need to not make the same mistakes.

New Labour’s modernisation agenda tells us all we need to know about what is wrong with the way government is run. New Labour tried to re-configure professional work into formalized ‘business processes’ and had an affect­ing but troubling faith in the power of Information and Communica­tion Technologies to enable radical organizational change.

A good example of this misplaced faith leading to incompetence is in social work services. Millions of pounds were pumped into it only to go from Victoria Climbie to Baby P (one before the reforms, one at the end, same tragic end in the same tragic borough). The reforms in this area tell a very sad, but familiar, tale.

Social work reform was based around the Integrated Children’s System (ICS) – a large IT project which promised ease of use, improved services and productivity. The result was increased workloads, decreased productivity, and demoralised staff. It was so unsuccessful that it is now being dismantled having only just been put in place.

Yet there were warning signs from the very start that this was a failing project. The project was based on undoubt­edly well-intentioned initiatives but there were critics from the start and the pilot project produced terrible results.

The detailed design of ICS was driven by a group of senior academics working closely with a small cadre of civil servants, who were resistant to criticism from a very early point.A steering group (and an associated advisory group) for the project consisted of 38 members, of whom 23 were civil servants (including the Chair), or directly linked to the civil service. The only ‘direct’ link with social work practice was via one assistant director of social services and one senior manager.

While this was linked to Labour’s reform agenda the origins of the ICS can be traced back to the early 1990s and so it is essentially a civil service project which happened to convince the Party of power at the time that this was a good idea.

The ICS project was driven by a cabal of avid reformers, with strong personal attachment to the ICS as their blueprint for change. ‘It’s X’s [a particu­lar civil servant] baby’ was the lament of many critics close to the project.

This is the same across government where key actors feel a strong personal sense of responsibility and emotional attachment to such projects end up being crucial, which explain the apparently reckless impulse to ‘throw good money after bad’ in the attempt to turn around a founder­ing project by pressing forward with even greater ardour.

Keil terms this escalation – ‘the continued commitment of resources in the face of negative information’ and offers a framework – a risk-management toolkit – for detecting and pre-empting escalation, or at least diagnosing and taking action before it is too late. It is hard not to see the ICS as bearing all the classic hallmarks of an escalating project, and to lament that it was not subject to the sort of critical external review that Keil recommends.

The tale of ICS shows how civil servants, who are divorced from the reality of the projects they are working on, are the lynch pins of reform. When we talk of reform in government we need to be looking at reforming the civil service and how governments are run. It is crazy to not include the people who will be implementing the reforms and seeking their opinion. This government has already had its taste of the same medicine – NHS reforms without consulting doctors!

The Lib Dems are all about ensuring power is at the lowest functional level and how governments are set up does not allow for this. There are many different ways of being able to do this such as the excellent Town Hall method by AmericaSpeaks – something the Lib Dems should look closely at to improve policy making, place power where it needs to be and meaningfully include the most important people in reform.

Advice for Nick and the Lib Dems to improve our polling for the next year: Using the ‘what works’ rule

Political opinion comes thick and fast in our mass media age but how much of it is really useful? How much of it gives you new information which will assist the party to improve their standing with the public? There are books, papers and magazines full of opinion but mostly of dissecting what has gone wrong. A lot of opinion offers little in the way of useable advice and if you are to listen to it all you would be paralysed from the conflicting advice that stems from the opinions. Suffice it to say not all opinion is worth listening to – so who or what do we listen to? What is going to increase the Lib Dem poll ratings in the coming year?

Let us take an example of completely useless prattle which provides nothing to no one about anything. PoliticsHome produce ‘Today’s Top Ten Political Must-Reads’ and at the top as I am writing this (Tuesday) is The alchemists of liberalism have left their parties behind, while this may be entertaining to read for some, it is completely useless in providing guidance to a party and proves my point nicely.

To listen to good advice we need to know what good advice is before we get seduced into the analysis of problems that lead to dead ends. A simple way to recognise good advice is through the ‘what works’ rule – 1) know what works and do more of it and 2) know what doesn’t work and stop doing it. Both of these will allow you to see that advice is based on evidence of what works for the Lib Dem situation. A simple and easy rule to follow but surprisingly not followed enough. There is already a ‘what works’ strategy in government which offers them good advice (New Labour moved away from it in their latter days) and it is a strategy which ‘works’. Example here. Essentially, this results in the axiom that political opinion is only worth reading if it creates a useable solution (unless it is read just for fun).

There is some good advice out there for the Party but it is often based on what is not working and then advice on what to do differently, which is useful. However, there is little advice on what is working and doing more of it which is equally, if not more, important to improving where we are now. I recently wrote a series of posts which looked at what the mainstream media have been praising the Lib Dems for in the past year (see here, here and here). These posts are raw data for formulating advice for the Lib Dems on what to do in the next year to improve our standing and poll ratings. This is the advice for the Lib Dems and Nick Clegg based on what has worked for them in the last 12 months (following the what works rule):

Firstly the Lib Dems need to show that Coalition Governments can work. They have been praised for it already in the past year and they will be praised again for it if they continue to make it work. They should do this by showing that the Lib Dems are genuinely trying to make the Coalition work, continuing to work well in government and continue to engage with Europe as we have, which shows a significant difference to what a Tory Government would look like. They should also continue to highlight that the Tories and the Lib Dems are working together better than Labour did in power on its own. We need to highlight the advantages of Coalition government where legislation can be amended and adapted as a result, at any stage – a significant difference to one party pushing through policy no matter what.

The Party should also highlight the changes in the Lib Dems. They should present the Party as a more serious party, attuned to the complexities of government, no longer a populist party of protest. However, they should remain resolutely liberal and that voting Lib Dem does make a difference.

It may be no surprise that any advice for a Party in Government would suggest that they need to advertise their achievements (as has been advised to the Party by many in the Party and this shows this is a good strategy). We need to continue to champion reform that the party has been talking about for years and show how it has been implemented. Continue to be the champion for civil liberties in contrast to the Tories and not be scared to fight certain factions of the Tory Party. We need to show how the Lib Dems have authored many of the changes in policy and highlight that policies are more progressive because of Lib Dem involvement and that the Government is less reactionary because of them.

Another key is showing that the Lib Dems have put brakes on the Tories by continuing to defend the Human Rights Act from those who want to weaken the rights of the people (which also include some in Labour). Continue to defend Ken Clarke on his prison reform and drug policy. Continue to champion the spending in education for poorer places. Highlight the softened edges of the higher education marketization (grasping the nettle). The Party should support the liberal Tories.

Moving on to Nick Clegg – We all know Nick Clegg’s mistakes, they are all over the place. However, he has also shown considerable political skill in some areas. He needs to continue to work with the Tories – in line with making Coalition work – but he also needs to show he can stand his ground. He needs some arguments with Cameron and the Tory right. He needs to pick some battles, carefully, and win.

He needs to continue to lead the Party by showing direction but also in standing for the Party’s democratic will. He should carefully listen to Conference and fight for it in cabinet. He needs to continue using simple and direct language in his communication – this is one of his great strengths and he needs to use it more.

Clegg needs to show he is not a fair weather friend by championing themes and ideas the Lib Dems have been shouting about for years. He needs to continue to be daring on tacking inequality and improving social mobility and he needs to be more robust on bankers’ bonuses than Cameron/Osborne. He needs to continue, in the face of great hostility, his drive for more progressive and fairer policies, particularly on crime, prison reform and on banks and continue to be a radical constitutional reformer. Nick Clegg needs to show liberalism can be optimistic.

With this, the Party’s poll ratings will rise.

Solution Focused Politics Top 10 Posts

Solution Focused Politics celebrates its 1 year anniversary this week and below are the 10 most read posts in that time:

1. Self-esteem is killing our country, time to end policies which promote it
2. 1 Year of Praise for Nick Clegg: His strengths and achievements in 1 year of being Deputy PM
3. Opinion polls which show some fundemental beliefs about Lib Dem strategy are wrong (and what needs to be done)
4. Personality characteristics of ‘successful’ politicians
5. New opinion polls showing some very worrying developments: The Lib Dems no where to be seen in the eyes of the less well off
6. 1 Year of Praise for the Lib Dems: Strengths of the Lib Dems in 1 year of being in Coalition
7. The Lib Dems should make a new coalition of shared beliefs and reach out to the 4th largest party in Westminster
8. Lib Dems making serious mistakes with use of language: How to get the language right to recover
9. A political grassroots movement which will take us to a new era of politics: Where do the Lib Dems stand?
10. Building a successful political narrative

In Praise of The Guardian: Finding stengths in the Lib Dems

The Guardian writes Making the Tories a bit less nasty won’t save Clegg’s skin which highlights some strengths for the Lib Dems which is interesting in tat it shows the strategy the Lib Dems took a while ago is paying off

The negotiations in recent weeks over Andrew Lansley’s botched NHS reforms have shown that not only are the Lib Dems finally conducting themselves as an independent party but that it is succeeding. That is a message not just coming from inside Clegg’s camp. Cameron’s strategy chief, Andrew Cooper, was, I am told, telling his boss to give the Lib Dems whatever they wanted on the issue. The Lansley reforms were risking the so-called detoxification of the Tory brand, Cooper told ministers.

In Praise of The Guardian: Finding strengths in Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems

The Guardian write Nick Clegg is doing better – but will it be enough? which raises some positive points about Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems which are worth highlighting

Nick Clegg turned out as the guest of the Commons press gallery lunch yesterday and delivered a polished performance – more relaxed and less defensive or self-righteous than he has often been this past year of high office… Hazell and Yong [government-watchers at UCL's Constitution Unit] say the Lib Dems (one-third of their 57 MPs are in government) have been better at organising backbench committees to monitor policies

1 Year of Praise for Lib Dem Ministers: Strengths of Lib Dem Ministers in 1 year of being in Government

Following on from 1 Year of Praise for the Lib Dems: Strengths of the Lib Dems in 1 year of being in Coalition and 1 Year of Praise for Nick Clegg: His strengths and achievements in 1 year of being Deputy PM we now look at the strengths of the Lib Dem Ministers according to the mainstream media over the past year. While I have not tried to systematically collect information which would give a more accurate picture of the praise of Lib Dem Ministers of the last year it gives a good overall picture.

I have split this up into the Lib Dem Ministers of Vince Cable, Chris Huhne, Others and also included Ken Clarke as he has been considered a 6th Lib Dem minister by many. However, I will start with this:

The Observer reports that officials across government agree that Lib Dem junior ministers work harder and better than their Conservative colleagues. Perhaps they have more to prove or it is down to their experience in local government. Whatever the reasons, they have put in surprisingly impressive performances (see here)

Vince Cable

The Guardian praises Vince Cable’s speech at Conference saying he finally made a dramatic return both to the limelight and to top form with political substance sending delegates home not just as a party of government but also as a party of progressive radicals (see here).

The Guardian praises Vince Cable saying he understands the value of adult education for those, like his parents, who need it most. He remains the person best placed to ensure that such provision no longer has to survive only on hope (see here).

Ken Clarke

The Guardian praises Ken Clarke for the most liberal approach to justice in about two decades (see here).

The Guardian praise Ken Clarke for his message that prison doesn’t work and there should be fewer people locked up for minor crimes rebuking Labour home secretaries who shamelessly pursued punishment populism (see here)

Chris Huhne

The Ecologist found signs that this government may really be serious about its green agenda saying that Chris Huhne is a serious and intelligent politician who is showing encouraging signs of knowing how to maneuvre and fight to get what his department wants (see here).

The Telegraph write Mr Huhne is undoubtedly one of the Cabinet’s big beasts, and one of the best Lib Dem operators (see here).

The Daily Telegraph writes Chris Huhne has achieved more in a year than most top politicians manage in a lifetime saying that Huhne’s commitment, competence and sheer cussed combativeness has won wide respect for his nerve under fire (see here).

The Independent writes Chris Huhne has proved himself a tenacious fighter in the bureaucratic jungle of coalition politics, for such an important cause (see here).

Others

The Daily Telegraph believes Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, is proving adept at using his internal leverage to shift Coalition policy in favour of the Lib Dems (see here).

1 Year of Praise for Nick Clegg: His strengths and achievements in 1 year of being Deputy PM

Following on from the post 1 Year of Praise for the Lib Dems: Strengths of the Lib Dems in 1 year of being in Coalition we now look at the strengths of Nick Clegg according to the mainstream media of the past year. Nick Clegg has had the biggest change in perception from the election campaign to today and much has been written about him – mostly negative. Yet there has been a surprisingly large amount of positive praise for Mr Clegg too backing up Stephen Tall’s idea that Nick Clegg is not an unpopular politician but a divisive one.

Again I have split these up into the themes that have come out: leadership, competence, principled and standing his ground. These strengths are a good base for him to build on and improve his standing in the perception of the public.

Leadership

The Daily Telegraph believe that David Cameron can learn from Nick Clegg about leadership and that Clegg must get credit for delivering for the party and doing what was politically painful (see here).

The Daily Mail praise Clegg’s leadership for the formation of the Coalition and for supporting the Government’s economic policy (see here).

The Guardian writes Nick Clegg is making a real difference saying he has responded decisively to the party’s democratic will by standing against parts of the NHS reforms (see here)

The Observer highlights that Nick Clegg’s personal poll ratings for decisiveness and resilience have gone up and people continue to place him in the centre of the political spectrum, the location where most voters put themselves.

Competence

The Independent praise Nick Clegg’s simple and direct language in his speech at Conference concluding ‘Clegg knows what he is doing – quite unusual for a leader of a party’ (see here).

The Daily Telegraph believe that Clegg is an honourable and strong politician, who has acquitted himself with shrewd judgment and considerable courage (see here).

The Guardian praise Nick Clegg’s speech on libel laws as a thoroughly good thing, important in timing and content and say that the Liberal Democrat part of the coalition is effective (see here).

The Daily Telegraph believe Mr Clegg is transforming from a politician of opposition to a politician of government and believe that voters will reward him in 2015 (see here)

The Guardian has praise for Nick Clegg’s speech for ‘its successful intellectual and trade exchange’, saying he was convincing and asking harder questions than before (see here)

The Daily Telegraph interviews Lord Tebbit today who believes Nick Clegg has pushed his agenda hard and is more politically motivated than Cameron (see here).

Principled

The Independent praise Nick Clegg for being more daring than Labour to narrow inequality and improve social mobility and more robust on bankers’ bonuses than Cameron/Osborne (see here)

The Guardian praise Nick Clegg for his consistency on the freedom bill and saw it as a product of optimistic liberalism (see here).

The Independent praises Clegg as a committed public figure who at times has fought assiduously behind the scenes for fairer policies which are braver and more progressive than those attempted half-heartedly by the previous Labour government. They see his objectives for improving social mobility as almost revolutionary. They say he is a radical constitutional reformer who is incomparably more progressive about crime, prison reform and banks than Labour was in government (see here).

Standing his ground

The Independent praise him for genuinely making Tory policies better (see here).

The Guardian identifies that Clegg is starting to stand up to Cameron (see here).

The Daily Telegraph worries about the influence Nick Clegg has on the government suggesting ‘while Mr Clegg looks like a loser in public, he is actually winning the policy debate: in the most fundamental areas of his programme, Mr Cameron shows every sign of surrendering to the Lib Dems’ (see here).

See Friday for the strengths the mainstream media see in Lib Dem Ministers.

1 Year of Praise for the Lib Dems: Strengths of the Lib Dems in 1 year of being in Coalition

The Coalition has been a blessing and curse in equal measure for the Lib Dems. With few friends in the mainstream media the Party has struggled to gain traction on what it is doing in a positive light. There are frequent depressing and negative stories about the Lib Dems and what they are doing in Coalition and the opinion poll ratings have followed suit. However, there are at times some positive stories which highlight the strengths the Party has and the good that the Party is doing. I have charted these (not in any systematic manner) from the mainstream media and now present the strengths within the Party in 3 parts. Today we look at what has been said for the Liberal Democrats as a Party, then I will look at the strengths for Nick Clegg (Wednesday) and then Lib Dem Ministers (Friday).

This is a strengths based approach which looks at the strengths of the Party so that they can be used again, expanded and developed to increase the resources the Party can use in attempts to increase our electability. This is important considering we have no concentrated media power base and a significantly different situation than the Party has faced before i.e. having power. I present this information in the themes that have arisen: that coalition works, changes for the Lib Dems, achievements for the Lib Dems and putting a break on the Tories. The information is not highlighted in any chronological order as what is important is that it was worth mentioning by the mainstream media as a positive from the Party.

Coalition works

The Sunday Times believes that the party has prevailed on its coalition partner on many policies showing that coalition government works (see here).

The Financial Times has seen the Coalition as a successful project the Lib Dems are participating in believing that forging a coalition to deal with the country’s challenges was the responsible thing to do. They believe that the Lib Dems have made the two parties work together better than Labour did on its own and consider this a big achievement. They report that the record on several fundamental Lib Dem causes, such as civil liberties and engagement with Europe, is impeccable (see here).

Changes for the Lib Dems

The Guardian claim that Lib Dem members have proved themselves more resolute about the coalition than some expected (see here).

The News of the World comment that the Lib Dems, now they’re in government are being effective – but being hated for it (see here).

The Independent have started to prefer the grown-up Lib Dems to their student predecessors. They see the Party now as a more serious party, attuned to the complexities of government, and no longer just a populist party of protest. The believe the Lib Dems are genuinely trying to make the Coalition work and have earned the plaudits of their Tory ministerial colleagues. They also believe that the Lib Dems have succeeded in casting a liberal complexion over the Government having an influence in the Coalition disproportionate to the number of seats – or even the number of votes – they won at the election (see here).

The Independent also sees the benefits of being in power for the Lib Dems is that they are listened to and that the idea that the Lib Dems are a civilising force on those reactionary Tories will at least be part of the new mood music (see here).

The Observer see the Lib Dems finding a new constituency among centre-ground and swing voters, including some who have not taken them seriously in the past and have reluctantly voted Labour or Tory instead because they didn’t believe the Lib Dems had a chance (see here).

Lib Dem achievements

The Independent see some solid and distinctive Liberal Democrat achievements that the Party can accurately claim that, after many years of merely talking about Liberal Democrat reform, are now enacting (see here).

The Guardian believe that the Lib Dems can justifiably claim to have made a difference on civil liberties in contrast to the resistance from the Conservatives to social liberal reform (see here).

The Observer see the Lib Dems as a serious force in government with their influence as pervasive. They see that there is pressure to make allowances for the Lib Dems in every department and believe that this is a substantial shift in British politics and a healthy one. They see the Lib Dems as building a claim to have authored many other changes in policy and society (see here).

The Guardian remain of the view that, for all the mistakes, the Lib Dems have played a positive role and can continue to do so (see here).

Putting a break on the Tories

The Guardian see the Lib Dem presence in the government has quietly justified some of the faith that the newspaper placed in the party. They highlight the BBC avoiding full-blooded savagery and the Human Rights Act being spared as reasons. As well as on prisons and on drugs, they saw the Lib Dems helping liberal Tories prevail. They even believed that the squeeze on school funding will be less intense in poorer places, and the marketisation of higher education has been softened round the edges (see here).

The Daily Mail believe that quite a few of those who call themselves Tories are beginning to resemble Lib Dems (see here).

The Independent believe the influence of the Liberal Democrats on the Coalition has been growing, and exceeds what they might have expected on the basis of their relatively small number of seats. They see the Lib Dems as important and substantial partners, at times almost co-equals and the Lib Dem policy contribution as distinctive and significant. They believe that Clegg can credibly claim that in several areas his party has helped to make the Coalition more progressive and less reactionary than it might have been (see here).

The Independent believe the Lib Dems have added substance and softened edges to government policies in a way that goes beyond mere appearance (see here).

The Guardian believe that it is thanks to the coalition we now had a “pause” in NHS reforms and suggest that David Cameron should thank his lucky stars for Nick Clegg. The Guardian truly believe that this reflects the advantages of coalition government (see here).

Polling

Lord Ashcroft conducted an opinion poll to look at some of the changes in attitudes to the Lib Dems since the formation of the Coalition which I add here to compare with the news reports:

• A large amount of Liberal Democrat voters are pleasantly surprised that the coalition is going so well, at least in the sense that the parties appear to be working together so harmoniously.
• Nearly a third of those who seriously considered the Lib Dems in 2010 but decided not to now say that their opinion of the party has changed for the better.
• For many of those who considered but rejected the Lib Dems, the party’s brand remains positive, and has in some respects been enhanced by its presence in the coalition
• Large majorities agree that the party has shown it is “prepared to take real responsibility, not just oppose from the sidelines”, and that it is making “an important contribution to the government of Britain”.
• the Lib Dems still “behave more reasonably than most politicians” and spend less time attacking (see here).

See Wednesday and Thursday for 1 year of strengths in Nick Clegg and Lib Dem Ministers according to the mainstream media.