Lib Dems drop antiestablishment motif
The Liberal Democrat annual conference in Brighton has seen off a potentially damaging vote on whether to call for a referendum on the Queen’s role as head of state.
The motion was brought by the Lib Dems’ Youth and Students contingent in the debate entitled “towards a democratic head of state.”
Charles Kennedy insisted previously that the policy had little chance of finding its way into the party’s next general election manifesto.
And with the Lib Dems’ byelection victory on Thursday in Brent East, Mr Kennedy will want to keep the loony left wing of his party at bay.
But deputy Lib Dem leader Menzies Campbell argued for a Dutch-style “bicycling monarchy.”
He said it was “time to start again” on the Queen’s constitutional position.
He said: “The kind of monarchy which has been sustained in, for example, Belgium and Holland where it takes a constitutional role but where the levers of power remain firmly in the control of the democratically elected Parliament.”
Charles Kennedy said yesterday that his party was on track to becoming the main opposition to the Labour party.
But Iain Duncan Smith at the Tories Scottish conference on Saturday, claimed the Lib Dems were “a left wing party who pretend to be moderate when it suits them.”
In response, Mr. Kennedy said: “I must admit that I’m glad I’m not taking my strategy lessons from who is ever putting ideas into Iain Duncan Smiths head.
“He told his own clan in Scotland that this was actually a big blunder by the Liberal Democrats to come from third place to win this by-election. This struck me as a very curious take on politics because the big problem for the Tories now is that we are the principle challengers today in very many of their constituencies right across the country.
“And as far as portraying the Lib Dems as some left of Labour party, which is nonsense, what it does do for disillusioned Conservatives who are looking for an opposition party in a democracy that can take on these Government and beat it.”
