Who Cares How Close The Lib Dem Vote Is?
Vince Cable has said that the Lib Dem leadership race is “very close” as it enters the last week of voting. Really? So what. Who cares? All that matters it the final result. There have been plenty of comments coming from both sides of the leadership battle and from the Lib Dems in general about how close run this race is between TweedleClegg and TweedleHuhne. But why do they keep saying this? I can’t remember anything similar happening in the final stages of the last Conservative leadership race.
It seems to me that this is quite simply an attempt to maintain some of the marginal interest that has been paid to the Lib Dems during their leadership race now that the voting has started and as the campaigning ends. But all it does is make people bored of the subject. It seems that every few days recently either Clegg or Huhne have been claiming that they are either marginally ahead or not far behind as an attempt to galvanise the Lib Dem members who support them into casting their votes.
This “race” has been close the whole way through, primarily because the two candidates are basically identical in policies and appeal - it was actually quite a shock when they very slightly disagreed over something! Also, I can’t seem to remember any real policy pledge - or even political ideal - that either of them have actually made. Maybe this says as much about me as them, but maybe not. But if I can’t remember anything they’ve pledge, how likely is the man on the street to?
When it comes down to it, all of this reading between the lines of the current voting situation is just boring. We the people don’t really care how close it is between the two men. All we care [very slightly] about is who the winner is. And that even Lib Dems are getting tired of this just goes to show that both candidates and all their hangers-on, campaign teams, supporters, and every other Lib Dem should just wait and see what the result is. Until then, it really doesn’t make any difference who is in the lead, and after it, it makes no difference how close the result was - just who won.
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You’re right, Chris - who cares about their vote?
It’s not that it doesn’t matter at all - since who the leader of the Lib Dems does matter at least a bit - but that it doesn’t matter until the final results are in.