The Laz Word: Are the Lib-Dems facing a wipeout?

IF a week’s a long time in politics, a fortnight rates as an eternity. Warren Bradley has been making headlines and hitting the airwaves with his doomwatch scenario about the premature death of the Lib Dems.

No sooner had the programme ended when up popped a text from Cllr Bradley describing my show as ... 'very anti-government. Whatever happened to benefit of the doubt? I hope you’re as fair with the retort if your guests are proved wrong!' he wrote

The party, he fears, will be wiped out within five years because of the coalition it has formed with the Conservatives.

Will party managers now be re-arranging the seating plans for the upcoming national conference in September when Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the potentially doomed Lib Dems, will be bringing the party’s annual conference to the city?

Warren, as leader of the Lib Dems in the city, would be expected to be a key participant at the welcoming party. Whether they’ll make him eat humble pie as he sits on the naughty step remains to be seen.

The controversy sparked by Warren’s outpouring could well earn the mantle of him becoming Clegg’s new VWF - Very Worst Friend.

Two weeks ago, St Helens MP Shaun Woodward, interviewed on my weekly show on CityTalk, predicted the Lib Dems would suffer a virtual wipe-out in Liverpool because of the party’s cosy relationship with the Conservatives. On the same programme Harriett Harman said Merseyside would suffer from the Budget proposals more than any other sub-region.