Tim Farron is new Lib Dem leader

[T_i_B]

Hope the Lib Dems can become a party worthy of support again after the disaster of the Clegg years.

Although it's worth noting that the Lib Dem leadership contest has generated pretty much no interest at all from the media or the wider public.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33545779

Tim Farron is the new leader of the Liberal Democrats, the party has announced.
The former party president beat Norman Lamb in the contest to replace Nick Clegg, with 56.5% of the votes cast.

[FBaggins]

1. "Not much interest" because...

He's been the expected heir for a couple months and, more importantly, the Lib Dems lost almost all of their influence.

Fewer than a dozen seats out of ~650 just isn't going to get much attention until (if ever) opinion polls show a chance of them regaining many of those lost seats.

They've been double-relegated from the Premier League to League One.

[T_i_B]

2. In addition to their serious credibility problem....

....I would agree that the Lib Dems are also suffering from a serious relevance problem.

However, I think that goes deeper than the general election drubbing. The destruction of the Lib Dems at local level over the past 5 years has also been a factor.

And the Lib Dems general election platform, which seemed to consist of the chance to keep Nick Clegg in a cushy job, with nothing being offered in return also exacerbated the Lib Dems relevance problem.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

3. Who knows

If Corbyn becomes Labour leader the Lib Dems might get in with some zombie Blairite splitters for a Liberal-SDP do-over.

[LeftishBrit]

4. I don't think Corbyn will become Labour leader...

and if he does, I think he will be persuaded by his party to resign rather quickly.

However, if Kendall becomes leader (also not terribly likely, fortunately) or if one of the others is pushed a bit too much to the Right, and if Farron is clever and shows more spine than Clegg, he might be able to get back some of the anti-Blair LibDem vote. Even under those circumstances, he wouldn't get another 2005; but he might get a significant improvement on the present position.

[T_i_B]

5. If Corbyn gets in....

....I doubt he'd last 6 months before the parliamentary Labour party kick him out again.

I also agree that there could be an opportunity for the Lib Dems to hoover up disillusioned folk from Labour over the next few years. And if the unions were to actually disaffiliate from Labour that would present a further opportunity for the Lib Dems if they were to play their cards right.

However, the first job for Tim Farron is to put the Lib Dems own house in order and work out what the purpose of the Lib Dems should be, because with only 8 MP's they are not in much of a position to hold any sort of "balance of power".

[non sociopath skin]

6. I think that the most likely result of a Corbyn victory is another SDP-like split.

Mind you, I feel that it may be just a matter of time before the Labour Party self-destructs anyway.

The Skin

[Anarcho-Socialist]

7. Agreed

The PLP is completely out of sync with the grassroots membership due to the consistent gaming of the PPC selection process by Progress and Blairite loyalists during the New Labour years.

Corbyn seems very popular with the grassroots while it's fair to say that the composition of the PLP would despise anything approaching democratic socialist leadership.

The alternatives seem to be:
* Corbyn leadership, with some sort of Progress split for a SDP mark 2
* Burnham/Cooper leadership, a continuation of the Miliband style of politics "don't stick your neck out too often" / "get into office based on your opponent's unpopularity", while the Party crumbles gradually in North and the grassroots feeling disheartened
* Kendall leadership, which would likely lead to union disaffiliation and the party losing northern England

[T_i_B]

8. Part of me wonders....

....if any of the Labour leadership contenders could even survive as leader until the next general election without being forced out.

Nobody seems at all happy with the dross on offer. Even ultra Blairite Kendall supporters. And I strongly suspect that Corbyn is not doing well because of his own merits, but because the rest of the field is so bad.

But will Labour learn from this and finally get their act together?

[non sociopath skin]

9. Much was made of the UKIP encroaching on Labour territory in the Northern Heartlands ..

.. with the assumption that this meant a drift to the right.

Curiously enough, my observation locally is that it didn't - it meant a drift to anti-Westminster community-based "populism," into which a Corbyn-led party of the left would have a fair bit of traction.

Note that in my neck of the woods, left-wingers Ronnie Campbell and Ian Lavery saw off UKIP quite satisfactorily.

The Skin

[T_i_B]

10. I think Labour lost votes to everybody other than the Lib Dems

As to the Lib Dems, I don't think they lost such a big proportion to UKIP, but voters deserted them in droves to Labour, Greens, Tories and of course those who didn't vote at all.

I think Labour just assumed all the disillusioned Lib Dem voters were automatically going to flock to them, and it didn't turn out like that. The Tories are the Lib Dems opponents in a lot of places and they benefited more then Labour from the Lib Dems collapse.

And another worrying aspect of the Lib Dems collapse is that it's removed the main opposition grouping in many places. Which means that the dominant party in many areas, be it Labour or Tory are now less accountable than before.