Two polls out tonight putting Labour on 30% and 31%. I did expect this week to have turned out alright for Labour. No sign of a national bounce for the LDs yet, either. I'd expect such a bounce to be in mid-May should it happen.
One big thing coming up is the local elections.
My suspicion is that the prediction of Labour's councillor ranks being massively culled will not come to complete fruition, but it will still be a bad night for them. Not as bad as UKIP, mind. It should be a great night to be a Lib Dem, but the biggest winner is likely the Tories.
Depending on how the press treat the election results - and how little coverage the press gives the LDs - I think it will be one of the more important dates in the election. If the LDs can announce it as a major victory, it could engender lots of interest. If the LD successes are more limited, or the press is really awful and just ignores the LDs anyway like last year, then it will just be another verdict on May vs Corbyn and the public won't care. Corbyn's followers don't really care if their hero is doomed, and May's already got this election sewn up.
I disagree.
It's a big factor, but it's far from the only one. Public services, support for those in need, the ever widening gap between the haves and have nots are just as big. Glossing over it all with a play to the glories of the economy over all isn't selling me one bit.
As an aside, Farron has the charisma of a gym mat.
I really don't get any criticism of Farron on charisma. He's not as charismatic as Clegg, but Clegg is unusually good at that. He's certainly better than May and Corbyn. This is personal taste, though.
On the vision - public services, say. You brought it up. What percentage of our public service staff - the NHS is often cited here - are EU nationals?
How much is Brexit going to damage the economy, and thus the income for the Treasury?
With a hard Brexit, you don't get strong public services. That doesn't matter if you vote conservative, or sign up to the all-talk-no-trousers socialism of Corbyn.
The economy is the fundamental structure on which our public services lie. And hurting the economy, as the credit crunch shows, hurts the poorest the most.
I don't think Corbyn *has* economic or social policy, or indeed lives on Earth. I think he knows how to give big socialist visionary speeches - the same stuff he's used for decades. I think he really does believe in the oil he's selling. But by abandoning the field on Brexit he's advocating for a weaker economy that hurts all the causes he is professes to back. That is clearly not a sustainable logical situation.
If you care about the things you listed, then you have to look at a party that wants the strongest economy. And that's the Lib Dems right now.