Cleggmania

It's a good time to be a Lib Dem, no bones about it.

It's a confusing time, though. Having always been the outsiders, the ones desperately trying to get people to pay attention to what we're saying, to our ideas, to our policies, we're not very used to this. I think the general state among us Liberals right now is shock and disbelief - we're a bit worried to go to sleep in case we wake up and it was all a dream.

The shock and disbelief is not - in my case at least - because our ideas and our party is popular. I have never had any doubt that our policies are the best strategy or dealing with the countries problems. I have never had any doubt that our leader is the best, most honest individual to lead the country and our leading the team the most accomplised and ethical. That probably goes without saying; if i didn't think so, I would never have joined the party. The suprise is that the press are paying us attention. THAT I never thought i'd see.

It's no suprise that Nick won the debate, though. Comments afterwards were along the lines of 'he appeared so honest' and 'he looked like he actually wanted a new type of politics'. Bigwigs at Labour and Tory HQ('s) might have been scratching their heads about how he managed to do this, but the answer is quite simple. He is honest. He does want a new type of politics. Clegg has nothing to hide going into these debates: the Lib Dems have the policies, we have the costings, and we have the record. We came across well not because of good spin, but because we are good.

It is interesting that Labour and Tories now think they can now de-rail us by telling people our policies wont stand up to scrutiny. Please, everyone, scrutinise our policies! That is exactly what the Lib Dems have wanted people to do for the entire 20 years of their existence! We want the media to talk about our proposals. We want voters to consider our policies. We've thought them through, and actually they are pretty good. It's totally true that you can't win an election without substance or style. Gordon and Dave think that because we showed the style in the debate, we must be lacking the substance and thats how they'll get us. I'm sorry, lads, but we've had the substance for years. It's the style we've been waiting for, and now we have that as well, we're going to take some stopping.

Sadly, however, there is one thing which may stop us. This next debate is going to be a tricky one, as all the Labservative pundits are predicting. Not because, like they say, our policies are patchy. We've got some very very good policies. They just aren't policies the majority of the public agree with. It will be a tragedy if we don't do as well as we hoped in this election because of our brave, defensible and very much correct policies on topics such as trident, immigration and the EU. On all of the topics, we have been the only main party to stand up to the false media bias that sways the argument against them, and formulate a policy which will serve the needs of this country and not pander to the electorate. Because the electorate are not positive about immigration and they are not friendly to the EU. But the immigration system we have now is irrational, costly and cruel; and the EU is the only way to recover British economic growth and the major avenue for proper solutions to continuing problems (ironically, one of those being immigration).

If this is a time of change, if the public really are tired of the spin and deceit that passes for politics these days, then they will listen to what we are saying on these topics. They will think seriously and not listen to the tripe that comes from the other parties or indeed the right-wing press. I've got faith they will, and if they do, they will see the rewards.