Now there's some leadership

At Lib Dem Conference Nick Clegg pulled no punches, if you'll excuse the worn cliche.
Refreshingly, he has made the party realise that finally being in POWER, involves taking and defending tough decisions and the message is clear, 'Man up, or ship out'. Speaking to The Independent the day before his speech he spelt out that there is no future for the Lib Dems as a left-wing alternative to Labour, a diet coke Labour party.

Clearly this will disappoint those within the party who would much rather that the party continued to sit on the sidelines throwing tiny stones at those in power. It will most probably lead to the exodus of many who joined the party solely due to their position on the Iraq war, for example. But Clegg is taking a risk, which may pay dividends come 2015. It might not, but there's only one way to find out!

Getting rid of deadwood is nothing new to the party. When the Lib Dems were formed after the merger between the Liberal Party and the Social Democrats the collected leadership of those two parties before the merger was greater than the number of members of the single party after the merger.

As long as Clegg can clearly show that the party is making a positive impact on the coalition then he won't really have to worry about low opinion poll numbers right now, what with it not being election time.

If the AV referendum next May fails a reassessment will be in order, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Right now Mr Clegg is giving a much needed kick those complacent moaners within who'd like nothing more than to have the luxury of opposition right now...