It's not serious politics

Nigel Farage not a patriot, Ed Davey says as Lib Dem conference begins

The Liberal Democrat leader launched the broadside against the head of Reform UK as he opened the first day of his party’s conference by setting out his own stall on migration and “British values”...

Asked by the PA news agency what he considered to be British values, the Lib Dem chief described “the vast majority of people who’ve got decent values, respect for the rule of law, tolerance, who love our country like the Liberal Democrats do”.

“They want to see a party that is true to British values but will change our country,” Sir Ed said.

Presumably, assuming it means anything at all, this claim means that British values will be changed by Ed Davey and the Lib Dems. 

In his way, "Sir" Ed Davey is even weirder than "Sir" Keir Starmer, being at least as inclined to direct his message at simpletons. Lib Dems can't think of themselves as simpletons and most probably aren't apart from the Lib Dem problem they have, so why does Ed favour simpleton rhetoric?   

“They want to see a party that is true to British values but will change our country,” Sir Ed says. Surely a substantial number of Lib Dems find this kind of guff embarrassing, so why does he do it? It's not serious politics and neither is this.