I know that they are now part of a government and that following a referendum on electoral "reform" they may be there permanently, but I just can't take the Liberal Democrats seriously.
Many Methodists voted for the Lib Dems. Some told me that they did so to "keep the Tories out". Instead the Lib Dems did their best to put the Tories in office.
There was a lingering hope that a Lib Dem presence may actually contribute to mitigating the right wing of the Conservative Party. Somehow the signs from the Lib Dem conference are not encouraging.
And at the moment I have one very personal beef. In 2001 I stood as a parliamentary candidate in a Lib Dem held seat. The campaign was particularly unpleasant. More than once I was told that people wouldn't be voting for me because I was "a Jew from Birmingham". I really don't know where that came from but somehow that line was doing the rounds.
But that's by the way. Later this week I will sign a very big cheque to pay the tuition fees for one of my children as they take a place at a university. Now in 2001 I was told by several people that they were going to vote Lib Dem because the Lib Dems pledged to abolish university tuition fees.
The Lib Dems have conned a hell of a lot of people. They have shown just how dangerous it is to vote for a centre party with no underlying philosophy. I prefer my Tories to wear blue rosettes, that way everyone knows where we stand.
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4 comments:
i'm afraid it is Labour rather than Lib Dems who must take blame for tuition fees.
But generally I agree with you. I voted Lib Dem to keep Tories out. Otherwise I would have voted Green.
Now I see Lib Dems as political prostitutes selling their favours and the wellbeing of many vulnerable people to whosoever will grant them favours.
What other option was there for somebody wanting to keep the Tories out? If Lib Dem had received less votes the Tories would have just been in with a greater majority because Labour were out of the contest. I'm sure libe Dems would have preferred to keep the Tories out and been the majority themselves! But in reality it was either going to be what we have now or a weak hung parliament (not good in this climate) or a Tory government.
I wouldn't let them off. There are other ways of enabling stable government than coalition.
What is most galling is there enthusiatic complicity in Tory policies. i am reminded of the end of Animal Farm when one couldn't tell the difference between the pigs and the humans they had once opposed. The same is now true of Conservative and Lib Dem leaderships.
the painful reality is that the Lib Dems are disposing of principles faster than a stripper removes garments.
Paul I'm not certain that a Methodist Preacher should discuss online the finer points of striptease with a Methodist Minister but: my limited knowledge of striptease is that it is done slowly, to tease. The Liberal Democrats seem intent on disposing of their principles at a faster rate! There are other analogies but I shan't detail them here!
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