So, I'm working on a timeline about the rise of the Liberal Democrats as a major force in British Politics (More major than they were historically, at least). I'm curious as to who the politibrits much more knowledgeable than I am on the topic think would be the best leader for the Lib Dems in the 90s and possibly into the early 00s.
Best Leader for the Lib Dems?
- Thread starter The Karavoka Man
- Start date
Charles Kennedy, but sober. The Lib Dems problem at elections in that period wasn't ever really their leader.
You'd need to make the Tories be even more of a trainwreck than IOTL. Here are a few ideas
-The Tories fall even harder when they lose under Major, either because the election comes sooner or something else, perhaps his affair with Edwina Currie, comes out
-Portillo makes it to the final ballot in 2001 and the stuff about his past homosexual experiences is enough for Ken Clarke to edge it. The Tories are in civil war for the next few years as Clarke can't reconcile his own moderate views with those of his backbenchers, and his is kicked out over he is opposition to Iraq, and replaced with IDS, and they proceed to do worse in 2005.
-There is a stronger, more organised left wing breakaway from the Tories than the Pro Euro Conservative Party, that eventually ends up entering into an alliance and/or merging with the Lib Dems. Or alternatively, a stronger Eurosceptic Party of the right that can peel off votes from the Tories in key areas would help. That would probably involve finding a way to keep Referendum going longer.
-Earlier election debates would also raise the Lib Dem profile, but since the elections in this TL would be even less close than OTL, there is not much of a motivation for a PM to participate in them. Maybe a Tory opposition leader agrees to do one without Blair to show him up, and the move backfires as Kennedy comprehensively beats them. Still, that would take a mildly stupid move on the part of the Tories.
On top of those factors, you could have Blair managing to get AV past the cabinet when he was doing constitutional reform. The preference votes are just enough to boost the Lib Dems over a Tory Party in chaos, and they become the official opposition, albeit a distant one.
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You'd need Labour to utterly crap themselves beyond all comprehension.
If by some insane fluke, Meacher, Corbyn or Livingstone replace Kinnock/Smith in 92/94 and goes full bore nationalise everything now, and the Tories continue to self implode throughout the 90s then the Lib Dems might be the main recipient of Anti-Tory votes. But even then the number of seats that would do good in is limited.
Charles Kennedy has always been my favourite Lib Dem leader.
Apart from him there aren't many, I would pick. Are there any failed candidates for MPs that could have rose through the rank?
Quite possibly, though since they never got elected to parliament, it would take someone with more in depth knowledge of the party than me to identify them all. The one name that does spring to mind is Gwynoro Jones. He was briefly a Labour MP but lost his seat, then came to the Lib Dems by way of the SDP. He was a good platform speaker, and I gather he was well liked among the grassroots. But he'd have been late fifties to early sixties in this time frame, and I'm not sure what he would have added to the leadership which a sober Charles Kennedy wouldn't already have.
@stodge wrote an excellent TL where IDS manages to hold on as leader of the Tories and leads such a lacklustre election campaign in 2005 that the Lib Dem decapitation strategy reaps dividends. They manage to come second in the popular vote, close to the Tories in seats, and wipe-out much of the Tory leadership.