Stephen Tall

The Independent, which became almost readable during the election, has — ever since the Coalition — been a sour, snarky, sarky read. Today’s not an exception.

Under the perplexing headline, Confused: The Liberal Democrat party disciples who can no longer enjoy the comforts of failure, the paper attempts to portray a party that’s extremely ill-at-ease. Well, that’s not how it feels to me.

Sure, the Coalition is the topic of conversation. Sure, there’s nervousness — a lot of it — about what it will mean for the party’s electoral prospects. But, overhwelmingly, there’s a sense that the Coalition was the only and the right thing to do.

I was phoned up by the Indy to give my comments. I spoke to them for 15 minutes from which two sentences have been extracted — to my relief, they are two which accurately reflect my support of the Coalition:

Stephen Tall, editor, Liberal Democrat Voice: “Would I rather we had five years in government with the risk that entails, or an endless amount of time in opposition with 60 or 70 seats? I think the former.”

Ad that seems to be the mood — a curious combination of optimistic and pensive — of the party conference, too.