Stephen Tall

The Independent carried a mischievously misleading front page report last week, hyperbolically headlined ‘Lib Dems rocked by anti-Clegg rebellion’ — their attempt to stir in the wake of the founding of the anti-Coalition Liberal Left group.

Here’s the letter my LibDemVoice co-editor Mark Pack and I wrote in reponse:

(Picture courtesy Mark’s site, as I don’t buy the Indy… even when I’m in it.)

Sir,

‘Lib Dems rocked by anti-Clegg rebellion’ shouts your front page (Thur 9 Feb). It’s hard to square this noise with the reality.

LibDemVoice.org, an independent website, regularly surveys party members’ views of the Coalition – support for it has never dipped below 83%. True, that means a small minority of Lib Dems are opposed to it, and that’s just fine: as a democratic party we’re intensely relaxed about constructive criticism.

To suggest their actions amount to a ‘rebellion’ which will ‘rock’ the party, though, is just empty hype.

Yours faithfully,

Stephen Tall & Mark Pack
Co-Editors, LibDemVoice.org