Peter Wilby is unduly pessimistic about the electoral prospects for the Liberal Democrat party after its coalition with the Conservatives (‘Two’s a crowd’, May 28–June 3).
If LibDem supporters vote Tory in the future, they will be opting for a pure Conservative government, much more to the Right – this seems unlikely. If they vote Labour, they know what they’ll get – a return to the discredited politics of the past few years. If they continue to support the LibDems, the least they can hope for is a continued centre-Right coalition, or, better, an enlarged liberal participation.
So long as the LibDems remain the moderating, restraining and progressive arm of the coalition, they should have a good and improving future.
After all, most voters in this country are neither on the extreme Right nor the extreme Left.
David Gadbury
