LIBDEMS: NO CHANGE

NICK Clegg is the third leader of the Liberal Democrats to address the party's annual conference in three years. Perhaps that is why he tried to make such a big impresssion, especially in his final address to the party faithful yesterday. Unfortunately he had not done his homework very well for the conference; on Tuesday in an ITV local news programme he was asked, What is the basic state pension? “I think it's about thirty quid” was his answer! Nonetheless he obviously considers himself qualified to talk about big finance and should be given credit for winning the party over to a tax-cutting policy funded largely by lower government spending. Yesterday's speech was disappointing with far too many one-line dismissals of the other parties. Mr Clegg described David Cameron's only aim as being “to be inoffensive”, which leads one to wonder whether Mr Clegg has been present at Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons when the Conservative leader is frequently downright offensive. Labour are “zombies” and finished as a party, leaving the field open to the LibDems to become “the only party able to deliver social justice.” Perhaps Mr Clegg feels he has to exaggerate in order to stay ahead of Chris Huhne whom he beat narrowly in the leadership contest; Mr Huhne received a standing ovation for his speech. Nothing much changes for the Liberal Democrats. The best they can hope for is a hung parliament in 2010 and an invitation to join a coalition.