The Daily Telegraph seem to have been trying to push the Lib Dems out of Government from the get go. Perhaps the budget earlier in the week was just too Lib Dem for the paper, who knows, but today’s rebrand rumours mark a new level of nonsense.
The paper claims that “the rebranding exercise due to get under way next month will involve a total rethink of the party’s direction and could even include changing the name and logo”. Except VN has learned there is no rebrand underway, at all.
It seems to VN that the story is designed to do nothing more than overplay the discomfort of some elements of the party, hence the Telegraph’s citing of the SDP in their claim that the super-new-rebranded-not-Liberal-Democrats will have “Social” in their title. It is, as Nick Clegg might put it, “utter bilge”.
While we are on the subject of Nick Clegg and the supposed hordes of people lining up to take over from him, could the Daily Telegraph have not come up with a better successor-in-waiting than previous leadership contendor Chris Huhne? Huhne is relatively young, and of course would be a highly credible party leader someday, but if you think that coups are his game you very misinformed. He has been highly professional and extremely loyal, to both the party and the man who defeated him, since the leadership election. The trust between him and Clegg was evident when Huhne was part of the coalition negotiation team, and remember, it was he who wrote the minority report of one first advocating full coalition with the Conservatives.
Obviously the Liberal Democrats and Clegg want to secure a ‘Yes’ vote in the fairer votes referendum, and obviously they want an improvement in poll ratings, preferably before the local elections. It is also no secret that both coalition parties are prepared to take ownership of it’s agenda, but also want to maintain their own parties independent identity. The Liberal Democrat’s are having to consider how to brand themselves now that they are a party of government, but that is as far as it goes. The full rebrand is a complete non-starter.
March 27, 2011 at 5:54 pm
Its a complete load of Jacksons but that hasnt stopped it being widely beleived on Labour Blogs.
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March 27, 2011 at 6:02 pm
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