Vince Cable, the new Leader of the Liberal Democrats, proudly and with the straightest of faces told his party conference that it was perfectly plausible that he could be the next Prime Minister. His party has only 12 MPs and secured just 7.4% of the vote in June’s general election!
I realise politicians always have to look at life through a certain distorted prism, and have to convince themselves that life is a lot more optimistic than it really is, but this is surely taking optimism to an entirely new level.
The Labour Party conference finishes today (Wednesday). I have little doubt it will be a celebration on a massive scale and, it must be said, a well-deserved celebration.
Behind all the cheering and partying, we will have the ritual bashing of the profiteering bus and rail companies, and yet another call for bus and rail to be brought back into full public ownership. Operators will have to grin and bear this ritual annual flogging.
Putting aside the merits or otherwise of renationalisation, operators need to reflect on the fact that, at least when it comes to rail, the public is hugely supportive of such a proposal.
But, for buses, the public is much less bothered about the issue of the regulatory and ownership issues that Labour gets so exercised about, and that’s largely because, on the whole, buses perform well – as passenger surveys consistently show.
That isn’t going to stop the Labour Party using its annual conference to bash the industry. And in the euphoric atmosphere that will be engulfing the conference, it’s what the party faithful will expect. We’ve heard it all before.
But in certain respects it’s not surprising. Jeremy Corbyn has managed, somehow, to tap into a general – and strong – sense of disquiet at the established order.
With the Conservative Party looking like it has a death wish, you can see how and why Labour politicians will feel emboldened even if many of them do not, in their hearts, want Jeremy Corbyn as their leader and do not support his hard-left policy.
These are strange political times: It’s a comment that is often made and over-used but is, for once, entirely appropriate and doesn’t fully reflect just how volatile our political landscape has become.
I laughed uproariously when Vince Cable said it was entirely plausible that he could be the next Prime Minister, but he was absolutely right when he said that politics was in flux.
But I fear, Vince, that the state of flux is favouring Jeremy Corbyn, not you.
