Listen to the People?

Ed Davey has been elected the leader of the LibDems and in his speech said that the party had to listen to the people in developing its policies.

I disagree. Surely a party exists because it holds a philosophical position on the political spectrum and develops policies around that. Voters are then encouraged to vote for that position and consequent policies. 

If Davey wants the party to listen to the people, then which people does he mean, exactly? The people in general hold a variety of positions, from left to right, and you can't please all of them without logical inconsistency. Listening to the majority risks turning your party into a facsimile of either the Labour or Conservative parties. If all parties listened to the majority, there wouldn't be a fag paper's width between their policies, which was the case in the late 90s and early 00s, and the point of parties becomes solely an issue of personalities and power at any price.

Listen to the party members, certainly, but that's not what he said - he said he would listen to voters. Policy should be formulated at the party conference, not sacrificed at the altar of public opinion, else we might as well just have a single party state with polls on every issue.