What are the Lib Dems for? They must champion localism to stay relevant in an age of single-issue politics | Simon Jenkins

Ed Davey’s party are the obvious candidates to push for the deeper local democracy the public is crying out for

September is the cruellest month for political commentators because it is when something has to be said about the Liberal Democrats. They are a play without a plot, a chorus line of seemingly endless “don’t knows”. Their leader, Ed Davey, recently warned that “we’re in the fight of our lives” to defend the values of liberty and equality. Really? How can this be when Davey is becoming about as relevant as Count Binface?

The Lib Dems’ central predicament has remained unchanged for a century, ever since the decline of David Lloyd George and the rise of the Labour party. There is simply no space in Britain for a centrist party when so little divides the big parties and they broadly stick to the prevailing ecomomic orthodoxy.

But there is now a ray of hope. One of the newer developments in British politics is the rise of single-issue parties. In Scotland and Wales, the Scottish National party and Plaid Cymru demand independence from the UK, while in England the Reform party has dedicated itself to curbing immigration.

A lack of a clarifying message could partly explain why the Lib Dems have suffered heavy defeats at recent byelections, and slipped to fourth or fifth place in many national opinion polls, regularly trailing the Greens and Reform.