Nick Clegg gives up on the south?

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Oh dear.  Nick Clegg's summer message to his Lib Dem troops (you can watch the surrender speech here, apparently) is not going to go down well with many of his colleagues.

Nick Clegg unveils a new strategy in his summer message

The gist of his address is that the Libs are now going to go after Labour seats at the next election.  There'll be a special fundraising drive in the autumn to help the party target "the 50 seats where the Liberal Democrats are best placed to overtake Labour."

Mr C says: "This is a huge opportunity for us. We've got to seize it. So I'm shifting our resources to put more campaigners and more effort into those seats where we're taking on Labour."

"I've instructed our campaigns chief Chris Rennard to step up our campaigns in the 50 seats where we're best placed to beat Labour."

Translation:  "We're going to lose lots of seats to David Cameron's Tories and my only hope of hanging onto my job is grabbing a few consolation prizes from Gordon's lot."  

Lord alone knows what Lib Dems in Tory-targetted southern seats are supposed to make of this latest strategic switch by Team Clegg.  After all, it's only days since the party converted to the cause of tax cuts, a policy specifically intended to appeal to Tory-inclined southern voters.   

Well, here's an outside bet for the silly season:  a southern Lib Dem MP will soon cross the floor to join the Tories, arguing that Mr Cameron has made the party the natural home of both social and economic liberals.