While Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt slogged it out in the limelight, Jo Swinson and Ed Davey seemed to have been in the twilight. In part because they fight to lead only the fourth biggest group in parliament and in part because there really doesn’t seem to be too much between them.
A leadership election is a moment to redefine a party in the eyes of the public. Where are the Liberal Democrats and where should they be as one of the two takes over?
All politics is local. Vince lives down the road from me and he’s popped in a couple of times for tea and a chat. When he took up the leadership my advice was to be bold and redefine liberalism in the 21st century, to put freedom at the heart of everything – but the freedom of the social liberal, the creed that knows that while we are all individuals, it is only through society that we know ourselves and can make the most of lives and each other.
