Andrew Grice: The Week In Politics

Paddling hard but Lib Dems fail to make a splash

Whatever happened to the Liberal Democrats? I pose the question because several readers of this column have asked me why I focus so heavily on the looming battle between Gordon Brown and David Cameron without mentioning the third force in British politics.

It's a fair criticism, even though all roads lead back to Brown v Cameron. This is a good moment to have a look at the Liberal Democrats because they have had a good week. Not that the media has given them much credit.

On Monday, Sir Menzies Campbell launched a coherent, common-sense policy on crime, proposing that "life should mean life" for the most serious offences, balanced by more rehabiliation for prisoners and sending fewer people to jail for less serious crimes.

Unlike the Tories, no-one can accuse the Liberal Democrats of not having policies. They have them coming out of their ears; their crime document is rather ominously billed as "policy paper 78."

Given the nervous breakdown at the Home Office, the Liberal Democrats' launch was timely. Yet their sensible proposals probably passed most people by. They merited 295 words in The Independent and 261 in The Guardian, but didn't get a mention in other national papers.

Sir Menzies managed to get through to the media on Wednesday when he called for British troops to be withdrawn from Iraq by October - a stance that has the merit of consistency and credibility because his party opposed the war. He did well in media interviews and in the Commons, and looked more assured on his old foreign affairs beat than he did when talking about crime.

The Liberal Democrats are used to toiling away in the saltmines without much reward. That is the stuff of third party politics, even though the party enjoys the support of about one in five voters. Indeed, an ICM poll this week put them on 23 per cent, up five points on last month. In last year's three parliamentary by-elections, the Liberal Democrats averaged 27 per cent of the votes, Labour per cent and the Tories 17 per cent.

Despite that, much of the party's media coverage centres on whether Sir Menzies will be toppled by his party before the next general election.

His doddery performances at Prime Minister's Questions after becoming leader last March helped journalists play a game of "Kill Ming" in the hope he would suffer the same fate as Charles Kennedy a year ago. In fact, the bruises from that assassination still hurt the party, and make it less likely that there will be another one.

There is another reason why Sir Menzies is safe. He might not have made much impact with the public but he has impressed colleagues with a lot of solid work behind the scenes, cranking up a party machine left in poor condition by Mr Kennedy.

It is a frustrating time for the Liberal Democrats. An impressive front bench team is being nurtured by Sir Menzies. But the party doesn't seem to be making much progress. It is eclipsed by the end of the Blair era and the media's natural interest in Mr Brown and Mr Cameron.

Some Liberal Democrats have been tearing their hair out as the big two parties steal their best tunes - such as higher taxes on gas-guzzling vehicles; scrapping the Child Support Agency; handing some power back to local authorities; giving MPs a vote before military action; creating a Ministry of Justice and abolishing the Department of Trade and Industry, which is now being considered by Mr Brown. If there were a law on political copyright, the Liberal Democrats would have a lot of money in the bank.

Mr Cameron's focus on the environment is particularly galling for the Liberal Democrats, who have been running hard on the issue for years.

The Tory leader, who declares himself "a liberal Conservative, rather than a neo-Conservative," is pitching for Liberal Democrat supporters. Soon Mr Brown will do the same, anxious to win back the progressive middle class voters who deserted Labour at the 2005 election. Both New Labour and the new "compassionate Conservatives" are trying to colonise the centre ground. The old Liberal Democrats have been there for years. They don't need to pretend to be new or something they are not. But it is harder for them to look distinctive when others have borrowed their clothes.

The good news for the Liberal Democrats is that the party will be in better shape when the spotlight returns, in the lead-up to the election. The bad news is that the media might then be obsessed with what the party would do in the event of a hung parliament. Sir Menzies' answer is to say his party will fight for "maximum votes, maximum seats" - but he will have to come up with a better response. And he will face a huge dilemma: his instincts lean towards Labour, but it could be disastrous for his party to prop up a dying Labour Government.

Until the spotlight returns, the Liberal Democrats have little alternative but to hold their nerve. Neil Kinnock once described his toiling in opposition as "paddling like hell" beneath the water while looking calm above the surface. Sir Menzies has a lot of paddling to do.