Christine Jardine: On the ropes, but definitely not down or out

It’s A challenging time to be a Liberal Democrat. As Dickens nearly said: in two cities we enjoy two starkly different fortunes, but it is still the tale of just one political party.

In London, we’re in a ground-breaking coalition. Lib Dem ministers in some of the most powerful offices in the UK Cabinet are delivering on the party’s promises – despite the economic difficulties.

In Edinburgh, we’ve been reduced to the fourth party at Holyrood. Willie Rennie leads a group of only five MSPs and the opinion polls are something few of us have enjoyed recently.

To rub salt in that wound, the Scottish leader of our UK coalition partner grasped the opportunity offered by the recent council elections to claim we are no longer a viable political party in Scotland.

To be fair to Ruth Davidson, who can blame her for making the most of a little electoral respite for the Conservatives?

And she does prompt an important question for us to ponder over the summer break: what does the future hold for the Scottish Liberal Democrats?

More than our opponents might hope.

The past two years have been amongst the most difficult in British political history. Our first UK coalition government since the war has faced an unprecedented economic situation. It has taken the initiative in the independence debate, delivered more powers for Scotland and is now pursuing the creation of an elected upper chamber.

So why have the Lib Dems done so badly at the ballot box in Scotland in 2011 and 2012?

Our critics – including some in our own party – like to direct the blame for the Scottish party’s misfortunes towards Westminster.

But that not only underestimates the scale of the task our MPs face and the success they have achieved, it also ignores what could be a valuable weapon for the Scottish party.

There is no doubt that if we are to regain our former position as a party of government at Holyrood, Scottish Liberal Democrats must reconnect with voters. Speak to them directly on the doorsteps about the issues they care about. Listen to what they have to say. Return to the localism that has always been at the heart of past success, as seminal influences such as Russell Johnston and Charles Kennedy demonstrated time and again.

It’s in talking directly to voters that Willie Rennie is at his most effective. But even he needs a strong message. Something that will convince voters to support him, and evidence that we can deliver. Part of that evidence is at Westminster.

Over the past week in the House of Commons we have seen the Conservatives turn on their leadership and the Labour Party play fast and loose with its principles.

I don’t intend to revisit the various developments of last week except to say this. Compare the Conservative and Labour antics with the disciplined, committed approach of the Lib Dem parliamentary team.

For the past two years it has put repairing the economy first and accepted that some Conservative policies were part of the coalition bargain to allow them to achieve the Liberal goals of a fairer society and a rebalanced, greener economy.

I know first-hand that this is a team which takes a mature reasonable approach. Yes, there are frustrations to coalition, but they are worked on. It’s a team that sticks tight and remembers there’s a bigger picture.

Time and time again Lib Dem ministers and MPs have delivered the clear contractual commitments that were part of the coalition agreement.

In return, they have won the raising of the tax threshold so that 96,000 Scots now pay no tax at all and two million more have had their tax cut. Pensioners are now guaranteed an annual rise linked to the real increases in their living costs and the Scotland Act has delivered the extra powers that opinion polls tell us the majority of Scots want.

But now the Conservatives are wavering on House of Lords Reform. It’s a policy they’re committed to both in their manifesto and the coalition agreement. The bill itself won a second reading by an overwhelming majority this week.

In the face of that Tory step back, the Liberal Democrats have maintained their discipline. The principle that the upper chamber that makes the laws of the land should be elected by the people those laws affect is one Liberals have pursued for a century.

The party won’t let it drop from the government’s agenda but it has allowed the Prime Minister the time he needs over the summer to persuade Conservatives to support it.

Democracy in action. But will it work for the party in Scotland? The evidence is already there that it will. Take the Scottish MP who is most closely associated with the coalition: Danny Alexander.

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury is not only inextricably linked to the economic policies of the coalition, he is also one of its leadership “Quad” and was part of the team that negotiated the agreement which guides its legislative programme.

But when the party’s popularity was tested at the local elections, his was the constituency in which we enjoyed arguably our biggest success.

Indeed across the Highlands, where we lost heavily the year before, we won in 15 local council seats. It was no coincidence that Danny Alexander – who is close to both Nick Clegg and Willie Rennie – had campaigned hard locally in the run-up to the council elections.

The mood of the party in the north is now positive. On doorsteps across the Highlands canvassers found voters were willing to listen again – a trend that others found elsewhere in Scotland.

And this autumn that growing case that we are working for Scotland will be strengthened.

The commission led by Sir Menzies Campbell will reveal the Lib Dem vision of how the powers already transferred by this government can be built on in the future as real alternative to independence – once that debate is settled. Now the referendum debate is up and running, the party must build on the commission’s work to remind the electorate that Liberals were committed to devolution and Home Rule for Scotland before the SNP existed.

Lib Dems have shown both at Holyrood and now Westminster that they can work with other parties, and will do it again in the referendum campaign.

The work we have done in the past two years has provided the foundations on which the Lib Dems will build over the next four years to the Holyrood elections.

Not viable, Ms Davidson? Not us.

• Christine Jardine is a former Liberal Democrat special adviser to the Westminster government.