"Nick Clegg and his fellow senior Liberal Democrats have been given a timely boost"

So starts today’s write up in the Financial Times of the latest Liberal Democrat Voice survey of party members. It’s a reflection of the media’s current deep interest in talks of splits or absence thereof that the FT should have given a long page 2 column to the story no less.

Full details of this survey and all the previous ones are over on Liberal Democrat Voice.

The FT’s story will at some point move behind its paywall, but here are the views Stephen and I express in the piece about the survey’s findings:

Mark Pack, co-editor of the Liberal Democrat Voice website, said he thought the party leadership was “pleasantly relieved” at the findings. He added: “It will make [Mr Clegg’s] speech to conference even more important than usual.”…

Stephen Tall, co-editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, called it a “warning sign” for the party leadership. He said: “The message from Lib Dem members seems clear. They support the coalition, but want to see Nick Clegg and his fellow ministers trumpeting those achievements which are the result of the Lib Dems being in government.”

He called on the party to be more willing to criticise its Tory partners, saying the leadership needed to be “more upfront about where we continue to disagree with the Conservatives”.