Monday 28 February 2011

The wisdom of Peter Kelner

Isn't there a flower at Kew gardens that lives for two or three hundred years without flowering, suddenly flowers, gives off a terrible smell and then dies? asks Peter Kelner - president of YouGov, a supposedly independent polling organisation - gleefully likening it to the future of the LibDems on this week's podcast from Guardian politics.

I well remember the same Peter Kelner almost crying on election night in 1992 as his polls - having predicted victory for Neil Kinnock - proved wrong and his beloved Labour party faced five more years of opposition.

He continues if I were Nick Clegg I would regard my time as Deputy Prime Minister as a fixed-term five year appointment and ponder life outside British politics after 2015.

Its nice to know that after all these years there's still plenty of balance from YouGov then...