https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/16/lib-dems-tories-split-vote-labour?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2HH0GlMUyDb_K-5Q0bvTszfiURI8KsNgzokuDXHUSfwj9DKn9R5tmmMqc#Echobox=1576520065
According to this article, the Lib Dems just help the Tories to get into power and split the vote. They say the party should disband into Labour and be a small moderate influence. Do you agree?
I completely agree. The Lib Dems are a spoiler, and until the voting systen is reformed, they are just enabling the Tories. They should join Labour. Jo's attacks on Corbyn scuppered his chances. Together, they would have won.
I've said no because Labour has enough liberals in the party and it's been that way since the 1920s when boys from the centre chose labour rather than were from the labour traditions simply to acheive power.
It has to be said also not all liberals are close to labour many are closer to the tories. They simply have a different tradition and philosophy to labour.
So Brexit has simply highlighted and caused the country to move to the right?
Liberalism and Socialism are two perfectly legitimate worldviews to have of the world and it's entirely right that they should be embodied in two separate political parties.
And it's wrong to assume that the second choice of a lot of Liberal Democrat voters is always Labour, it's just as likely to be the Conservatives depending on where somebody sits on the political spectrum.
In short - no. They're still an important force on a local level (they've still got 1/8 of all councilors in Local Government), and they're still a social-liberal alternative for people who don't like Labour or the Greens. If anything, there should be a more diverse set of parties of the left (and the right) represented - it's just that FPTP means that it's more likely to go down to a 1-party system.
I would argue that half the LDs are of the Orange Book pro conservative kind.
No, not at all. What an absurd question.
Also, it was Labour who turned down a pact with the Lib Dems/Greens/Plaid. If they had accepted, they might've come out of the election a bit better.
Of course not. I'm a Lib Dem member, I know plenty of people who'd vote LD but never Labour and vice versa, what we NEED is PR. They picked up over 3 million votes and would've had 70+ seats if our system was anywhere near fair. Lib Dems aren't Labour and Labour aren't Lib Dem, they can't just merge just because both sets of voters would probably prefer anything to the Tories right now. They could probably work out a coalition with the right timing and right sets of leadership however.
LDs were winning by-elections and gathering momentum over the summer. Unfortunately Jo Swinson didn't do the party any favours, I think she had the best of intentions and was probably a good MP but was never the leader the LDs needed, really wishing Vince Cable had stayed on until the end of the year now. I voted for Ed Davey originally in the leader election too. Not all on her though, the media all but ignored the Lib Dems in head to head TV debates, killing their numbers in the polls.
Who do you want to be the new leader?
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