Something Less Than a Mystery

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, the UK’s Lib Dems just don’t understand what went wrong:

Defeated Lib Dem Peter Carroll described the failure of his party on a national level as “a mystery” after losing his third successive election battle.

The Gurkha Justice Campaign founder polled 17,602 votes in Maidstone and the Weald – an increase of 13.2 per cent – but still finished almost 6,000 behind his Conservative opponent Helen Grant.

His failure to win the seat mirrored the collapse of the Lib Dems across the country, as the so-called ‘Cleggmania’ phenomenon failed to materialise.

Mr Carroll, who also ran for election in 2001 and 2005, said: “I’m disappointed because I thought we had an outside chance of winning (in Maidstone).

“I was really pleased with the campaign we put together, but it wasn’t the best night and not the result we were hoping for.

I have a theory. The British electorate was concerned almost entirely with the economy, while the most important plank in the Liberal-Democrat platform was changing the electoral system to make it more friendly to Liberal Democrats.