It was an old Commons joke that Paddy Ashdown’s voice-mail asked callers to leave a message “after the high moral tone”. It neatly captured the Liberal Democrats’ carefully cultivated image of political purity. They did not grub around for votes; they had high principles and they would stick to them. It was a convenient way for them to justify their perennial electoral unpopularity. Yet the aura of self‑righteousness never quite washed with those politicians from the two big parties who have had to campaign against them on the ground. Their verdict on Lib Dem election tactics is frequently unprintable.
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