Is there a secret Lib Dem plan for another coalition with the Tories?

The election for party political activists on social media is a rather different beast from the election as anyone normal might experience it. It’s a world of impenetrable memes combined with breathless speculation, mixed with candidatitis-inspired peaks of the greatest hope and troughs of the deepest despair. It’s very easy for tight in-groups to form within these circumstances, and for a belief to quickly circulate and be adopted as true by those groups without any evidence for it.

One belief that I’ve seen circulated widely is that Jo Swinson wants nothing more than to take the Lib Dems into another coalition with the Conservatives and this explains everything about Lib Dem strategy. See, for instance, this (it’s the most recent example of it I’ve seen):

Are the Lib Dems Going to Punch Themselves in the Face - Again? - Byline Times

Yes, this (and so much worse) was an actual campaign that people thought was a good idea (source: Independent)

First, it’s always worth considering that a badly executed campaign strategy might just be a badly executed campaign strategy. If you’ve seen such previous Lib Dem highlights as somehow managing to lose seats in 2010, or 2015’s “Stability. Unity. Decency.” debacle, then the idea that the…