Q. What are the Liberal Democrats FOR anymore?

Maybe it's just the benefit of the coverage of their conference last week, maybe it's Nick Clegg's (brief) stint in the charts for the remixed version of that apology (left), but the Lib Dems seem to be getting a little more coverage than usual. Nick Clegg may have apologised for making the tuition fees pledge (not for breaking it you understand), but otherwise he used his conference speech to defend Osborne's calamitous budget, and insisted that the government - and the Lib Dems in it - must press on with its austerity agenda. He defended the tax cut at the top rate that puts £40k a year in the pockets of millionaires. At the same time he refused to rule out further cuts to welfare, when most frontline agencies are expressing profound concerns about the impact on those already announced on the poorest and most vulnerable in our communities when they come into force next year. As Ed Miliband said in interviews this weekend, far from being a "brake" on the ideology of the Tories, the Lib Dems are an accomplice to swathing cuts that are not only damaging to our communities, but are damaging to the economy. 

When you give tax cuts to millionaires, they do not spend that additional money - they invest it. The economy does not grow through a policy like that. It grows when the millions of ordinary people in this country have jobs that pay a living wage, and the taxation and spending that results lifts business and public spending across the board. The policies of this Tory government - and their Lib Dem co-conspirators - are choking off any hope of growth, and the deficit - the very purpose the Lib Dems said they went into coalition - is growing as a result. The policies are failing, the government is failing, and the coalition partnership is failing.

Nick Clegg's determination to defend austerity (like his decision to defend rises in tuition fees) is entirely at odds with his pre-election message:

"Imagine the Conservatives go home and get an absolute majority, on 25% of the eligible votes," Clegg said. "They then turn around in the next week or two and say we're going to chuck up VAT to 20%, we're going to start cutting teachers, cutting police and the wage bill in the public sector. I think if you're not careful in that situation… you'd get Greek-style unrest. And so my warning to people who think the old politics still works, is be careful for what you wish for."

Since that Observer electioneering interview, Clegg & the Lib Dems have voted through:

• VAT rise to 20%
• Cuts to teaching budgets (of up to 40% in the University sector, despite rising tuition fee income)
• Huge cuts to the police, that see Devon & Cornwall Police seeing the fifth highest cuts to officers in the country 
• Public sector pay freeze that means a real-terms cut for over 4 million workers, while job losses in the sector continue

ALL the things Clegg cautioned would lead to "Greek-style unrest". What has changed? Why were these policies disastrous as far as the Lib Dems were concerned before they gained power, yet now are "necessary"?

The party also sought election on a platform of constitutional reform and human rights. They failed spectacularly to get a "Yes" to an alternative voting system in the referendum, that was called ridiculously prematurely in the parliament. Nor could the Lib Dems wield any influence whatsoever over their Tory masters on Lords Reform, while the draft Communications Bill will give security forces the powers to monitor internet use and mobile communications that would make most libertarian Lib Dems squirm. 

Clegg wows the Lib Dem activist base at conference 2012!

It's hard to see how any Lib Dem activist could possibly look a voter in the eye ever again and claim that Lib Dems are a force for progress and change. They are either impotent, or complicit. Either they lack principle or spine. 

All this is, of course, concerned with the national picture. But what of our local Lib Dem presence? Lib Dems have often enjoyed local support as a party of "good local people", even if their national party is in the doldrums. In Exeter, the local Lib Dems' fortunes have been closely mirroring those of their national colleagues. In the heady days of 2008 the Lib Dems were the largest party on Exeter City Council with 13 councillors, and enjoying 27% of the vote across the city. Their close (if antiquated) Liberal allies had a further 3 councillors. Since the 2010 General Election, and their sudden chuminess with the Tories, it's all been downhill.

In June 2010 Cllr Rob Hannaford and then Cllr Adrian Hannaford defected from the Lib Dems to Labour in protest at the coalition government. They could hardly be accused of "glory-hunting" or "opportunism" at a time when Labour still trailed in the polls and the coalition enjoyed its (admittedly brief) honeymoon period with the press and electorate. Then, an extra set of autumn elections was triggered by the coalition's decision to reverse Labour's decision to allow Exeter unitary status. The Lib Dems lost one of the three seats it was defending. 

Lib Dem leader Adrian Fullam watches over counting on
a depressing night for his party in May (via BBC)

In 2011 they lost a further 2, as did the local Liberal Party; but then in May of this year the Lib Dems were reduced to just 5 City councillors - with just 14% of the vote across the city, as Labour (already the largest group since 2010) took outright control. In amongst these results there were some shocks. County councillor Vanessa Newcombe lost her City seat to Labour newcomer Rob Crew in Alphington, a full 10% behind in the share of the vote. In St Davids, Labour's Sarah Laws surprised herself by unseating Philip Brock - one half of a well-established husband-and-wife Lib Dem team with his wife, Stella, while in St Thomas the local voters re-elected Rob Hannaford - now firmly in the Labour camp. Both Philip Brock and Vanessa Newcombe will no doubt be nervous in May 2013 as they have to defend their County Council seats against a strong Labour challenge - and the Lib Dems face being wiped out as far as the County Council is concerned in Exeter.

What have they learned? Nothing it seems. The local Lib Dems continue to defend the absurd positions adopted by their national leaders, still vainly trying to persuade local voters that the policies that we all know are choking recovery, and are hurting us - or the lives of those we know - are a good thing. The Exeter Lib Dem website still carries an article stating that the 2012 budget, almost universally derided as the most disastrous budget in living memory, was in fact a budget "for the many not the few"! No lessons have been learned. I would invite anyone in Exeter to attend Council meetings and witness the Lib Dems (and their leader in particular) enjoy the cosiest of relationships with the Tory "opposition" on the Council. 

Let me be clear. I have many friends who are current or past Lib Dem activists. My favorite newspaper - the Guardian - came out in favour of the Lib Dems in 2010. For many, the Lib Dems presented an option in 2010 that was carefully crafted to supposedly offer a "more progressive" alternative to those on the Left than Labour. I don't blame anyone for looking for an alternative when Labour looked like it was running out of steam. However, those that fell for it, now feel duped. One of the saddest developments recently is that a local (and somewhat secretive!) Lib Dem blogger, Lonely Wonderer, stopped writing in July signing off by saying, "I think I've largely failed to get through to fellow Lib Dems" - and this after his / her penultimate posting asked the pertinent question, "Is the Lib Dem core vote circling the plughole?"

I believe there are some good, principled people in the rank-and-file of the local Lib Dem supporter base. However, these people are not served by a party leadership that is still in denial about its own role and complicity in implementing a vehemently Tory agenda that even Thatcher could only have dreamt of. I understand that the previous Labour government got things wrong, things that may make some Liberal and Social Democrats question - but those same debates rage in the Labour party too. Indeed, Ed Miliband has voiced his own reservations about some aspects of our recent history. The difference is that Labour is facing up to its record and refounding itself, and - against all odds if the media is to be believed - is doing so under a unified leadership and re-energised activist base. 

There is every prospect that the Liberal Democrats will take another beating in the 2013 County Council elections. And in 2014's City Council elections. Why would someone who cares about progressive politics stay in a party facing electoral irrelevance? "Because we're a Party of principle - we don't just seek power," was an explanation offered to me by one local Lib Dem friend. This may have carried some weight had the "principles" of no rises in tuition fees, no increase in VAT, no tax cuts for the wealthiest not been so readily sacrificed on the altar of coalition politics. 

Exeter Lib Dems' group of councillors is dwindling fast, its supporter and activist base is shrinking and it will struggle to defend the seats it has - never mind fight to make gains for some years to come. Meanwhile Exeter Labour - with  a growing band of councillors and an experienced and heavyweight MP - is ensuring the city rides out the double-dip recession that was made in Downing Street. 

Maybe, one day, a re-energised third centrist party will emerge again from the ashes of this calamitous Lib Dem era - but let's not pretend that the Lib Dems are a force for good in the coalition, or that they are either "Leftist" or "progressive". If you counted yourself as on the left or  a progressive in 2010, then the Lib Dems have failed you, but it's an exciting time to be part of Labour. This nation and this city still has some huge problems to face up to and solve no one is pretending otherwise. Yet neither the Tories nor the Lib Dems have the answers, that much is clear. But in Exeter Labour you will find a vibrant and energetic local party that is getting on with working at community level to find the solutions we all need. 

If you voted Lib Dem last time and feel as betrayed as the polls suggest so many do, then come home to Labour.