Leading article: Still seeking a distinctive voice

Seven months ago, the Liberal Democrats chose Nick Clegg to lead them because he is the sort of personable, sensible man you would not mind meeting in a pub. The elder statesman's gravitas of his predecessor, Sir Menzies Campbell, had not worked. The hope was that someone younger and with a more common touch could pull the party's fortunes around.

But so far, that elusive Liberal Democrat revival has not really begun. Mr Clegg himself should be more visible. When the BBC's Five Live sent a reporter around Romsey, the most marginal of the Liberal Democrat parliamentary seats, he could not find one person who recognised Mr Clegg's photograph or name. The Liberal Democrats' share of the vote in The Independent's poll of polls is stuck at around 18 per cent, compared with the 23 per cent they scored in the 2005 general election. The number of Liberal Democrat MPs has been climbing steadily with each successive general election; next time, it could go down.

Mr Clegg needs to find a convincing cause that will attract people to his party. Charles Kennedy, for all his many faults, offered two clear reasons for switching to the Liberal Democrats: the Iraq war and student fees, both of which he opposed. Earlier, Paddy Ashdown rebuilt the party almost from scratch by making it the most pro-European party in the Commons, and by saying that income tax should be raised to pay for a better education service. But for more than two years, there has been nothing of that kind to give the Liberal Democrats a distinctive voice.

Today, Mr Clegg will make a bold attempt to give his party a clear identity once more, with his document Make It Happen. He will introduce a new policy of cutting income tax to 16 pence in the pound, by increasing green taxes and wealth taxes. Adroitly moving into a space that David Cameron has left empty, Mr Clegg will also be announcing that it is his party's aim to cut taxes overall, something that Mr Cameron will not do in his anxiety to decontaminate the Tory brand.

This is shrewd political calculation by Mr Clegg. It seeks to recast the Liberal Democrats as the party of the small state, liberal in social policy and in economics.

It will cause trouble among some Liberal Democrats, who instinctively prefer to tax and spend generously, but we have not heard any better ideas for getting the party out of Mr Cameron's shadow and making it visible again.

Mr Clegg has a mandate from his party and he deserves an upturn in his party's fortunes, which has eluded him all these months. Perhaps today will see the start of it.

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