What Future for the Liberal Democrats

One of the big impacts of Brown vs Cameron has been the squeeze on the Liberal Democrats, who are heading rapidly towards single figure polling. Now while this is a traditional trend mid term, this real substantial drop seems to indicate something more fundamental and it's not all about the leader.
 
Obviously Ming is pretty inept at leading his party. I always thought of him as the only real substantial statesman like figure in the Lib Dems when he was foreign affairs spokesman. Taken out of his brief though and he's been found wanting. Lamentable PMQ performances and no real connection with the public. However, the Lib Dems have a far more wide reaching problem than that, and that's identity.
 
What do the Lib Dems stand for. Are candidates in Newcastle council elections telling the same stories as those standing in rural Hampshire. I think we all know the answer to that. The point is the Lib Dems need to work out if they are going to go to the left of Labour or portray themselves as a soft Tory party. The real problem they have is the seats won in by elections from Tories. They want to hold on to these but don't want to pursue a policy agenda to do so, as they prefer to be on the left.
 
So what do they do. Well there is much talk of having a female leader to be distinctive. Looking at their benches, there is no one at all suitable due to age, incompetence and the marginal nature of their seat. In any case, that is only a superficial fix. They instead need to work out what they are for and who they appeal to. Do they go after disaffected Labour voters in places like Liverpool and Newcastle, and in doing so risk their southern soft Tory seats or do they try to compete with Cameron as soft Tories. That would be very courageous. At this moment in time their future must surely be in the North chasing Labour seats. Their hatred for Tories will probably see this doesn't happen. My only forecast is there will be trouble ahead.

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