And on immigration. And on welfare. And on businesses. And on Scotland. The only big issue where you can even make an argument he hasn't surrendered is on an EU referendum.

How about rent control? Or the railways? Or energy prices? Market interventions have been thought inconceivable for over 20 years. Or are none of those big issues?

How about rent control? Or the railways? Or energy prices? Market interventions have been thought inconceivable for over 20 years. Or are none of those big issues?

 

Hmm, wouldn't say temporary (assuming they can actually pull them off and they are not long-term) pricing control over the private sector is anything other than a half-hearted attempt to grab some votes. Why stop there? I'd be more impressed with making them public-owned again and having real control over costing and pricing for public services.

 

That's just me of course...and the Greens.

And I really think it's naive in the extreme to think Ed would put through even those half-hearted measures if the press are wailing day after day about it.

What do you think he went into politics for if you think he wouldn't do a single one of the things he holds up as a totem for why he's different from what went before? Honestly, if he was that scared of the press he wouldn't have committed to a single one to begin with. Or Leveson and taking down Murdoch, for that matter.

Exactly he has shown in opposition that he would stand up to powerful interests.

 

There was a good story of the leaders on news night lastnyt showed Eds first appearance on tv in 1990 when he was on strike at Oxford over increased student rents. Also showed his dad in the 1960s debating against the Vietnam War!

Possible late surge to Labour? The final ICM poll gives them their first lead of 2015.

I don't trust the polls this election, still think undecideds will vote for the Tories!

I don't trust the polls this election, still think undecideds will vote for the Tories!

 

 

Me too. Said that last week. Think they'll have most seats if not even a small majority. :(

Hilariously, the "Blairites" are already crowing over Twitter about how Labour's platform (a platform headlined by "balancing the books") was too left-wing, apparently oblivious to the fact that the Lib Dems in the exact centrist position they want Labour to move to got hammered even worse.

Hilariously, the "Blairites" are already crowing over Twitter about how Labour's platform (a platform headlined by "balancing the books") was too left-wing, apparently oblivious to the fact that the Lib Dems in the exact centrist position they want Labour to move to got hammered even worse.

The Lib Dems were hammered for different reasons, but I agree it's a ridiculous idea.

The Lib Dems were hammered for different reasons, but I agree it's a ridiculous idea.

 

Oh definitely, they had a grim night pencilled in ever since the tuition fees pledge was broken, but I do genuinely think they turned it from grim into catastrophic over the past year by deliberately being "centrist" between the two main parties and having nothing interesting or distinctive to say, hence getting squeezed from all sides.

too left wing? If they were that left wing then they wouldn't have lost 40 seats in Scotland

Libdems have been more left wing than Labour for years, they were deserted by their supporters (not the ones jumping on the 2010 bandwagon) for appearing to lose their social conscience in favour of being Tory policy puppets without complaining about the policies they were implementing as part of the Coalition. Quite obviously they should have made it public what they really thought about the policies that werent actually in the libdem manifesto (they were Tory policies) while the Tories took credit for those that were in the libdem manifesto.

 

Politics is a dirty business and they were naive. They forgot who they were in bed with.

 

Libdems will be stuffed for a generation until they move back towards fair social policies and stick with them, stuff the consequences for the nation. Labour will now be split on the way forward - though it seems obvious to me that they need to move leftward and get back in touch with their roots. New Labour failed, ultimately, by being too Tory and being asleep on the job while it got hard ons from all the banking taxes that were funding the increasing social costs and adding layers of bureacracy to everything. Conservatives more or less supported the same policies as New Labour, bar the ones aimed at the poor, and would have done no different in power with regard to the banking crisis and housing bubbles and megacorporations buying up everything and tax dodging. We already have a Tory party, don't need another.

 

The SNP will still have the economic realities of life to live with, and balance books in Scotland, and make more decisions for themselves - and also accept any consequences for those.

 

 

The Tories may offer the SNP fiscal powers in order to undermine them in the upcoming elections. The probably won't do better than 2015. Or I may be wrong...

 

As for labour moving to the left will that win them seats in Scotland next time IF the SNP maintain the loyalty of the electorate in 2020 and it may isolate them more in England.

Libdems have been more left wing than Labour for years

Don't make me barf.

Don't make me barf.

 

what, again? :teresa:

 

Banks. Deregulation. Iraq. Academies. Student fees. Afghanistan. Bush.

 

These and other New labour policies not exactly left-wing. Not exactly Libdem either. Very Tory.

 

Miliband made token efforts to redress the balance while the libdems were getting sh*gged by Tories, and there were some good 90's social policies (which the Libdems were not in any way against).

 

Feel free to dig out examples of right-wing Libdem policies that Labour were against before 2010. There aren't many....

what, again? :teresa:

 

Banks. Deregulation. Iraq. Academies. Student fees. Afghanistan. Bush.

 

These and other New labour policies not exactly left-wing. Not exactly Libdem either. Very Tory.

 

Miliband made token efforts to redress the balance while the libdems were getting sh*gged by Tories, and there were some good 90's social policies (which the Libdems were not in any way against).

 

Feel free to dig out examples of right-wing Libdem policies that Labour were against before 2010. There aren't many....

I'm sorry, I thought we were in 2015. Who voted for the Bedroom Tax?

I'm sorry, I thought we were in 2015. Who voted for the Bedroom Tax?

 

No need apologise. :teresa:

 

That was a Tory policy, not in the libdem manifesto, not a policy, as you know perfectly well coalitions have to give and take, and that was a give..

No need apologise. :teresa:

 

That was a Tory policy, not in the libdem manifesto, not a policy, as you know perfectly well coalitions have to give and take, and that was a give..

I'd love to know what the take was.

I'd love to know what the take was.

it's in pretty much the next conservative policy announcements as they slaughter onward all of the blocked libdem policies now, and the ones the libdems got through such as tax relief for the lower paid etc. Read Clegg's goodbye speech, or any of the newspaper assessments, History will show they were stitched up royally by the Tories, as Suedehead has been saying for some years.

 

Labour should have asked themselves: which is better, attacking the Tories and holding back on the libdems in order to get rid of the Tories just in case we need to go into coalition with the libdems to get rid of them, or annihilating the libdems so completely that it risks Tory domination when they join in on the bashing and plotting. Politics is about the bigger long-term picture not short-term knee-jerk strops. I'm guessing students will not be better off over the next few years....