Who's the Dead Parrot now?

Evening all!


"Now, that brings me to the Liberal Party. I gather that during the last few days there have been some ill-natured jokes about their new symbol, a bird of some kind, adopted by the Liberal Democrats at Blackpool. Politics is a serious business, and one should not lower the tone unduly. So I will say only this of the Liberal Democrat symbol and of the party it symbolises. This is an ex-parrot. It is not merely stunned. It has ceased to be, expired and gone to meet its maker. It is a parrot no more. It has rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is a late parrot. And now for something completely different..." Margaret Thatcher, Conservative Party Conference, 1990


Well, that by-election in 1990 and a fair few polls appear to have something in common. Don't write off the popularity of a supposedly dead parrot. It's certainly better than a slug.

"Does it talk?" "Nope." "Well then it's scarcely replacement, is it?!?"

You can rubbish Lib Dem policies, you can say Trident is needed, you can say abolishing six-month sentences won't work.

But just like the volcanic ash, their increasing popularity remains vigilant, as well as being irritating to some people in London. (Though I am appreciating how quiet the sky is.)

And on a day when even the Daily Mail reports that Cameron's getting heckled on his own turf, you do begin to wonder whether or not this is a temporary blip for the Conservatives. (I read it online, so my hands are clean: but my retinas will need scrubbing.)

It looks like we've all underestimated the power of a TV debate: I didn't actually think Clegg beat Cameron and Brown by much. But so far the attacks have failed to land much of a blow. Maybe they should get John Cleese in to start bashing it around.

And the weird thing is? I haven't heard a huge amount about Vince Cable recently: supposedly the "real leader" of the party.

Funny that. It's getting closer than I thought it would. Hmmm.

Chris