iberal Democrat president mocks No 10 rose garden press conference as he likens coalition to temporary marriage
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Tim Farron will have had the famous Downing Street press conference in mind when he likened the coalition to a temporary marriage. Photograph: Charlie Bibby/Financial Times
As something of a stand up comic, Tim Farron knows how to win over an audience with good jokes usually delivered with impeccable timing.
The president of the Liberal Democrats put in a barnstorming performance in Birmingham this evening that will probably be remembered as one of the highlights of this year's conference.
It is true that some of the jokes fell slightly flat. Saying that the Kaiser Chiefs had predicted the riots didn't quite capture the mood. For non-music fans their second album in 2007 was Yours Truly, Angry Mob.
But Farron's decision to liken the coalition to a marriage was a clever move. This is what he said:
The picture of the coalition being a marriage is a depressing one isn't it?
It didn't take long for Lib Dems to clock what Farron had in mind. That would of course be the picture of David Cameron and Nick Clegg launching the coalition in the Downing Street garden in May last year.
By likening the coalition to a temporary marriage, which is being held together for the sake of the children, Farron sent two messages – one loyal to the party and one helpful to his own future prospects.
• Loyal message
By saying that he fully endorses the coalition – and speaking of his pride at the work of Lib Dem ministers quietly speaking up for the party's values in government – Farron silenced critics who say he is using his post to push his own interests.
• Farron's message
By mocking – however indirectly – the Downing Street wedding Farron made clear his unease when the Lib Dem leadership struggled to assert its identity in the immediate aftermath of the election. The likes of Farron were furious when the Lib Dem leadership failed to stamp out Tory talk about fighting a "coupon election" in 2015 in which the two parties would not stand against eachother in some seats.
This sort of thinking was discussed in the Clegg circle because Jasper Gerard, once a member of this group, writes about an electoral pact in his new book which is being serialised in the Daily Mail this week. Lib Dem sources are busily rubbishing Gerard.
If talk of a "coupon election" now feels bizarre, in the wake of the Tory-Lib Dem bust-up over the AV referendum, then take a look at what David Laws had to say today. In an article in the Observer the former chief secretary to the Treasury explained why the leadership had to hug the Tories so close after the election:
In May 2010 there were two questions – could a coalition work, and could the Liberal Democrats play a serious role in it? We have answered both questions in the affirmative.
The Lib Dem leadership believes that, having passed those tests, it is now right for the party to differentiate itself from the Tories. That explains why Lib Dem ministers have more space to criticise the Tories, though not in the trenchant language of Farron who is of course not a minister.
So what is Farron up to? The Lib Dem president clearly wants the coalition to survive, though he has no love for the temporary marriage:
Look we had three political options after the 2010 elections: we had to choose between the rather unpleasant, the completely impossible or the utterly appalling; but we only had two economic options between the horrible and the catastrophic.
But Farron remains personally untainted by the coalition. He is carefully positioning himself as the candidate to pick up the pieces if the Lib Dems find themselves in a nuclear wasteland after the next general election.