Living in the wrong place?

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Driving to the shops yesterday, I happened to catch a snatch of an interview by Jeremy Vine of Ed Davey, the deputy leader of the Lib Dems, discussing the major issue of the election, cycle paths.  Davey and the Lib Dems are, apparently, in favour of more cycle paths, but Vine rather unhelpfully pointed out that, where he lives, the local Lib Dems are opposing the creation of new cycle paths.  Davey’s response was roughly as follows: “But where I live, the local Lib Dem council is building new cycle paths.  You should come and live in my constituency”. 

It was a quick-thinking riposte, but it’s actually quite revealing, not to say damaging.  He’ll probably regret the words he used.  There was no attempt to deal with the implicit question that what the Lib Dems stand for varies from area to area, and it even managed to express a vague hint that if the Lib Dems in your area aren’t doing what you want, then it’s your fault for living in the wrong place.  The Lib Dems have, of course, campaigned for many years on a hyper-local platform; they are willing to say whatever will win them votes at any given time and place, even if it’s the exact opposite of what their neighbouring branch is saying up the road.  And there’s nothing wrong with hyper-localism as such, as long as the voters in a particular constituency or ward know what they’re voting for – unless and until a party espousing it claims to have a clear national platform.  If a party’s candidates are elected on widely differing platforms in different constituencies, you can never be certain what their policy really is on some matters until you know which of them is elected; the manifesto is an irrelevant diversion.  He may have been caught out accidentally giving an honest answer - probably a disciplinary matter.