Prophetic … and has been true for a long time

Nick Clegg claimed today that the Liberal Democrats were on course to replace Labour as the main progressive force in British politics.

The Lib Dem leader said that it was

"obvious to most people that Labour's time is up"

and that Labour's top-down approach to government was no longer appropriate in the 21st century.

In a pamphlet published by thinktank Demos called The Liberal Moment, Clegg said that liberalism should be "the rallying point for a resurgent progressive movement in Britain".

Clegg, who also summarised his argument in an article in the Times, said that the Labour party deserved to replace the Liberal party as the dominant party on the left at the beginning of the 20th century because its ideas were right for the time.

"Labour's basic approach to governance - to social, political, economic and environmental progress - is fundamentally flawed. Its starting point is central state activism, its defining characteristic is the hoarding of power at the centre, and its method of delivery is top-down government," Clegg wrote.

"The speed with which the Labour party eclipsed the Liberal party in the early part of the last century was, in large part, because Labour better understood the need for such collectivist responses, especially at a time of war, and an internally divided Liberal party did not."

But now the position was reversed, and liberal ideas were right for the country, said Clegg, whose party conference starts on Saturday.

"State-centred, top-down solutions are wholly out of step with the demands of our age. We live in a more atomised society, where people are no longer rigidly defined by class or place. Our society is no longer trapped by a culture of diffidence and hierarchy. In short, we live in a more fluid, less deferential world where opportunities and threats can no longer be exploited or defeated by national governments alone."

Clegg went on: "Only liberalism possesses a clear understanding of the way in which power has flowed upwards and downwards from the central state. Only liberalism marries a passion for devolution within Britain with a commitment to international institutions and the international rule of law."