When I was about 15, my friend’s parents got divorced. Her mum seemed to really flourish following the split but her dad took it extremely badly. Without the security of his marriage he felt exposed and alone, and he responded by desperately latching on to his teenage children in an attempt to rediscover his lost youth. His house became a popular place to hang out because of his lax attitude towards loud music, underage drinking and recreational drug use. Sometimes, he’d even smoke a spliff and share it with my friend’s older brother and his mates.
Though we had appreciated the way he was more relaxed and permissive than most of our own parents, we stopped going round after one particularly raucous party, when his mortified daughter discovered him trying to coax a noticeably intoxicated girl from the year above into what had formerly been his marital bed. None of us trusted his motivations again. In my experience, young people are rarely the credulous idiots they’re portrayed as.
Which brings me rather neatly to the current predicament of the Liberal Democrats. Try as I might to suppress my cynicism, it’s hard to interpret the party’s recent report calling for cannabis to be legalised as anything other than a desperate grasp for relevance. Drug decriminalisation is a policy they’ve quietly backed for a while, but choosing to trumpet it now feels like a pitiful attempt to appeal to young voters – the group most likely to believe drug laws should be liberalised.
Like my mate’s dad, the Lib Dems experienced a messy break-up and weathered it far worse than their former partner. As the Conservatives stride forward with heads held high, stronger than they’ve been in decades, the Lib Dems have been left sobbing along to Adele and lamenting what could have been. Now that their support network has all but disappeared, they’re making a last-ditch effort to revivify a strategy that worked so well for them in the past: pandering to young people.
The thing is, circumstances have changed. Back in 2010, the Lib Dems were largely an untested commodity. Nick Clegg seemed like a fresh-faced, exciting alternative to the dreary Labour and Tory leaders whose parties had neglected younger voters for years. Even if they weren’t convinced the Lib Dems would win enough seats to be able to scrap tuition fees as they’d promised, many young people felt they’d finally found a party that would take their concerns seriously.
Six years later, few are likely to be so easily impressed. Whether you support cannabis decriminalisation or not, it’s clear that the Lib Dems have limited ability to actually influence government policy. They have eight MPs now. Eight. Less than one seventh of the number they had in 2010 – when the Tories’ lack of majority allowed them to punch above their weight – and the same number as those other parliamentary big-hitters, the Democratic Unionist party. Their support has disintegrated because they gambled everything in a deal with the devil. Then the AV referendum happened and it became clear it had all been for nothing. Like a lecherous dad at a teenage party, they’ve blown the goodwill they once had.
Tuition fees have become a symbol of the Lib Dems’ betrayal of young voters, but the treachery is actually far more extensive. They chose to prop up a government that delivered the worst assault on young people we’ve seen in decades. Education maintenance allowance was scrapped. Many Connexions services were closed. The Future Jobs Fund was slashed as thousands of young adults were blamed for their own unemployment and forced into unpaid workfare schemes.
True, they might have temporarily blocked some of the Tories’ cruellest plans – cutting housing benefit for under-21s for example – but they also helped the party secure absolute control in the 2015 general election. Many Lib Dem voters who didn’t mind the coalition switched and voted Conservative. Those who did mind were often forced to opt for parties that didn’t stand a chance in their constituency.
The Lib Dems had a chance to stand up for young people and they blew it. It’s insulting they think this “cool dad” act might be enough to turn things around. Why the hell would anyone care that Tim Farron has personally smoked weed? Young voters are more concerned about having to pay their rent and bills, affordable education and a basic level of job security. Cannabis decriminalisation might be popular among younger demographics, but we’ve learned the hard way not to trust Lib Dem promises that seem too good to be true.
