Are the Lib Dems broken.

[Huguenot]

I think you're right SMG - disaffected Lib Dem voters wouldn't return to Labour, they just wouldn't vote.

[Brendan]

Well I?m joining the communist party. Not that I?m actually a communist but because I?ve realised that faced with an extreme on one direction (ie the far right approach of our current politics) the only productive opposition that will have any chance of dragging them back to the centre is an extreme in the other direction.

Plus I quite fancy some marching and brick throwing.

[DJKillaQueen]

The country sees this coalition as the best shot. If it were to vote again they would probably re-elect the tories

Complete assumption by yourself based on nothing. In fact the last opinion polls show the Labour vote up, Tories and LibDems down. And give it another 12 months when the cuts start to come into effect and bite and the picture will change again.

[Brendan]

mockney piers Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Ok the Tory party is a vehicle for power with the

> principle of looking after your own.

> old labour was too

> New labour was purely a vehicle for power.

Three perfectly put points that so many people just don?t seem to realise.

[DJKillaQueen]

I agree with them...but the third point was born out of necessity after being in opposition for so long.

[SeanMacGabhann]

I don't see how people can say "old labour" was "a vehicle for power with the

> principle of looking after your own"

did I miss a meeting - the NHS, previous education policies and minimum wage schemes to name a few - who introduced them then?

[SeanMacGabhann]

I mean Admin can?t even get a consensus going on this forum ? now try and extrapolate that to a whole country with competing interests and interpretations ? what political party is going to come out of that looking whiter than white

Complaining they are all the same is a cop out. For New Labour?s faults they aren?t the same as the Tories. The Republicans in the US are not the same as the Democrats. Fox News is not the same as BBC news

That doesn?t make who I choose perfect, and they will end up being bloodied and compromised but that doesn?t make them the same

[DJKillaQueen]

They are not the same in what they do and think (something that gets forgotten after long terms of same government) but they are the same in how they operate.

[SeanMacGabhann]

I'm not even sure what that even means

How would you operate?

[Ridgley]

Very interesting points made on this thread, I must confess I am note queued up to all what?s happening in the political world as most of you are in this thread, but I very disappointed with Lib/Dem myself I always voted labour through our my adult life but I thought I would vote for them as a change from Labour and now I feel let down by them especially on the students fees subject.

[sedgewick]

Nick Clegg's first political boss was Leon Brittan, so once a Tory always a Tory.

[DJKillaQueen]

That's my view too. I think he is a career politician and chose the Liberal Democrats because he felt he would have more opportunity to progress the ranks within them.....but even he couldn't have dreamt it would be so meteoric and land him in shared power. There is also a very strong hint that much of the deals done with the Cameron government haven't involved the bulk of his MPs.

[Townleygreen]

Just opinions. No evidence to support them at all, DJKQ.

And I would think Clegg might have held his nose whilst working for Leon B. Who knows? Many people work for politicians that they don't agree with politically.

I think the coalition is doing quite well in difficult times, thanks to Labour's (mainly G Brown's) huge cock ups. Abolishing boom and bust. What an arrogant pr*ck that man must be!

[DJKillaQueen]

Hmmm...you forget who began the process of deregulation townley (long before Labour came to power) and that it was a global crisis enabled by global deregulation of banking practises. It's far too easy to blame Labour as your blatently Tory supporting post does. You obviously are not unemployed in an area of high unemployment, or disabled, or low waged, in receipt of HB or have any problems with housing.

[Townleygreen]

You are completely wrong, I have never voted Tory in my life.

Shows you up for looking at everything through your totally biased right wing Labour spectacles.

[DJKillaQueen]

Yeah whatever.....

['bout now]

Soooooo if there was an election in, say the next six months.

How could you vote Lib Dem? As far as I can see they have not upheld anything within their manifesto bar electoral reform, a bone the Conservatives have thrown them in order to get their way on more fundamental policies. A bone that's so empty of fat given the LD holding within the commons.

To me they are doing nothing but giving a cloak of legitimicy to a minority government, whilst destroying themselves through hypocrisy. Nick Clegg's latest admission that he didn't think about the university fees pledge is frankly ludicrous.

I think its in the LD's interest to have an election, see the Tories walk it and get themselves out of a hugely damaging and abusive relationship, It won't happen though and I think we'll see the liberal party metamorphosise yet again.

Interesting times.

['bout now]

Shows you up for looking at everything through your totally biased right wing Labour spectacles.

Anybody? Anybody?

[Ladymuck]

'bout now Wrote:

-------------------------------------------

> ...is this the end for the Lib Dems?

I think it has to be.

Once the favourites of students...not any more...

[????]

It gives me great pleasure to type the words...

wot Sean said.

Has been known before.

[Loz]

I think the next few years will be both good and bad for the LibDems. Good in that they will become a credible party for government, especially if the economy recovers, but bad in that they are going to take bit of a hit in vote numbers. But even now when they are under sustained attack in the media, their support is not far below where it has been in any mid-term for the past couple of decades.

Plus there will always be room for a third party that occupies the (admittedly currently paper-thin) ground between Labour and the Tories.

As for Clegg, I think he is the right person for now, but the LibDems might just want to consider ditching him in time for the next election.

Soooooo if there was an election in, say the next six months.

The Tories would romp it in. Neither of the other two parties has enough money to fight an election effectively.

[Townleygreen]

'bout now Wrote:

-------------------------------------------

> ...is this the end for the Lib Dems?

Who knows? But as the coalition is hoping (!) to last 5 years, it is entirely possible that by then we'll have a real recovery, and that even the students will have forgotten about this issue, and that the LibDems may do alright.

Many governments are highly unpopular at this sort of stage, and then recover.

I wonder if DJKQ can tell us Labour's policy on university fees, then? After all, they're the ones that brought them in, in the first place.

[Brendan]

Nick Clegg made a pledge that he would do something if he won the election. He couldn?t honour that pledge because he didn?t win the election.

Tony Blair lied blatantly and unapologetically to students about top-up fees.

[Loz]

Brendan Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Nick Clegg made a pledge that he would do

> something if he won the election. He couldn?t

> honour that pledge because he didn?t win the

> election.

Blimey, Bren, that's generous of you. I'm a happy LibDem voter and even I think Clegg has made a huge hash of this fees pledge.

[Brendan]

Well I wasn't really defending him. Just pointing out that he didn't know he was going to enter into a coalition when he made the pledge.

I do think he should have stuck to it or at least put up more of a fight.

Perhaps trying to accommodate too many Tory members distracted him.