Neither Left Nor Right? The Liberal Democrats and the Electorate: The Electoral Politics of the Liberal Democrats (Paperback)

I suspect that a student of politics would find this book helpful in understanding the Party in several respects:
· its purposes and philosophy;
· its history;
· the difficulty of being a third party faced with a simple majority electoral system;
· its focus on grassroots activism and community politics;
· the importance of targeting to its campaigning, and its prospects for success in particular areas and constituencies;
· its record of success in the devolved administrations and in local government;
· the persistent struggle for media attention and the consequent desire to have eye-catching and distinctive policy positions; and
· the importance of the party leadership in presenting the public face of the Party.

As an activist I have found it a useful independent analysis of where we are and what our major challenges might be. The case studies of particular seats are also informative and useful examples. The statistics on electoral results, and the section trying to develop a picture of a typical Liberal Democrat voter, offer new insights and are not simply a rehash of data available elsewhere.

Such caveats as there are would include the observation that some of the information is a little out of date, and this position will only be exacerbated following the expected general election of 2005.

I was disappointed that some issues were not given more attention: in particular, the distinctive political situations and cultures in both Scotland and Wales, and the consequences of the Party's federal structure in reacting to the recent constitutional and political changes across the UK. These were alluded to briefly in describing the benefit of being perceived as a party capable of performing well in government and the countervailing difficulties of being seen as tied to Labour in the Scottish Executive and Welsh Cabinet, but the issues could have been considered in greater depth. Like most academics, this book views politics very much as a UK-wide (or, in this case, GB-wide) activity. However, the perception of political activists, journalists and commentators and (in my experience) voters in these areas is that people have more knowledge of, and interest in, the devolved political scene than its UK-wide equivalent.

That said, this is a serious, thought-provoking and well-researched study and deserves attention within the academic and political fields. It also has a highly readable style for a work of this type and I would confidently recommend it.