Belated birthday wishes!

I missed this one. Probably too wrapped up with the idea of going into hospital, but the Liberal Democrats celebrated their 20th birthday last month. Next year will be tantalising for them. Could it be that a general election is called and they get the key of the door?

The Liberal Democrats are a new party. They are not the old Liberal Party (Gordon Brown keeps calling them that - the "Lubberull Party!") nor are they Social Democrats in entirety. They are, at least to me, a new breed of politician. Liberal in some sense, corporatist in a way, muddled on occasions, and socially aware at times. They have, though, done what the old Liberal Party couldn't do. Appeal to a wider audience within the electorate.

So they had a marriage made in Portsmouth, as the BBC Parliament programme showed. Still happily married, although, somewhat like Ken Livingstone, they have preferred not to talk about their tiffs and rows and their two children ,who they have kept at arms length. The continuing SDP and the continuing Liberal Party are still plying their policies and living the life of a minor party.

The Liberal Democrats gave us three-party politics. We will have to wait to see if they can cosy up to another party in the event of a hung parliament.