The Liberal Democrats

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SkyBlueFlux

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Seems a bit strange to have a thread for the other political parties but not for these.

I know a lot of people hold them responsible for the Tories gaining power in 2010 - along with some of the consequences of that, such as tuition fee increases and various austerity policies.

Whether you believe them, there have been a couple of MRP polls recently that suggest they have a (very small) chance of becoming the opposition. I think I personally would rather have them in that seat than the Tories.

They, much like Labour, have had to change a lot since their complete collapse in 2015. Ed Davey seems like a genuine bloke who clearly is dealing with some very challenging life circumstances, his wife and son both being disabled. But then he was recently in the headlines for the wrong reasons:

www.bbc.com

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey fined for speeding

Sir Ed Davey paid a fine after being caught doing 73mph in a 60mph zone on the M1 motorway.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com

The Lib Dems are also the only party so far to come out with a strong policy on social care which is an absolutely enormous issue the other two haven’t even mentioned.

When the biggest complaint about the two main parties is that their policy platforms aren’t differentiated enough it will be interesting to see how the Lib Dems position themselves as the historic centre ground party.

There are bits of the Lib Dem policy platform I really don’t like - mainly the proclivity for NIMBYism which is one of the reasons our country is in the state it’s in, especially with housing. But when the manifestos come out, nearly every election an objective read tends to show I agree with theirs the most. That doesn’t mean I vote for them though (and haven’t for a long time now).

Do people think they’ll do well? And is that because they’re benefiting from the anti-Tory protest vote? Or because they actually have something to offer?
 
I think the Lib-dems are playing a very good game so far in this campaign.
By focusing on the tory seats where they finished second, they could quite easily have between 60 - 80 MP's returned, which will be a strong base to grow from, especially as July 5th will be the start of a internal war within the self-servatives which promises to consign them to the dustbin of political history
 
KnaresboroughBlue said:
I really hope so. They suffer a lot from the electoral system we have though so it's unlikely they will ever be anything other than a potential coalition partner.
Click to expand...

One such poll that will give them hope:



Given the LibDem vote is highly concentrated this would likely mean 50-70 seats for them, but total civil war on the right between Tories and Reform could see them dip under that in a worst case scenario.

I have mixed feelings on it because while Labour having such a huge majority feels unhealthy (they’d effectively have the power of a war time government), I think LibDems being in opposition would help drag the national conversation away from the extremes and back to the centre ground. It might also force Labour into deploying some stronger left wing policy in response.
 
SkyBlueFlux said:
Seems a bit strange to have a thread for the other political parties but not for these.

I know a lot of people hold them responsible for the Tories gaining power in 2010 - along with some of the consequences of that, such as tuition fee increases and various austerity policies.
Click to expand...

There's an interesting "but for" analysis you can bring to bear in relation to the Lib Dems.

But for Nick Clegg's decision to buddy up to Cameron, there would have been no coalition government in 2010.

But for the austerity programme driven by the coalition government it is unlikely the same undercurrent of seething resentment would have built up over the years that followed.

But for Nick Clegg's abandoning the tuition fees pledge that he made, it is unlikely that the Lib Dems would have been decimated in 2015.

But for the coalition government and his assessment the Tories would not win an outright majority, It is unlikely that Cameron would have permitted a referendum on EU membership to be part of the tories' 2015 manifesto.

But for the inclusion of the referendum promise in the 2015 manifesto it is unlikely Brexit would have happened.

Given Nick Clegg's stance on Brexit, there is no little irony in the fact that you can, if you are so inclined, trace it back to him.
 
Chris in London said:
There's an interesting "but for" analysis you can bring to bear in relation to the Lib Dems.

But for Nick Clegg's decision to buddy up to Cameron, there would have been no coalition government in 2010.

But for the austerity programme driven by the coalition government it is unlikely the same undercurrent of seething resentment would have built up over the years that followed.

But for Nick Clegg's abandoning the tuition fees pledge that he made, it is unlikely that the Lib Dems would have been decimated in 2015.

But for the coalition government and his assessment the Tories would not win an outright majority, It is unlikely that Cameron would have permitted a referendum on EU membership to be part of the tories' 2015 manifesto.

But for the inclusion of the referendum promise in the 2015 manifesto it is unlikely Brexit would have happened.

Given Nick Clegg's stance on Brexit, there is no little irony in the fact that you can, if you are so inclined, trace it back to him.
Click to expand...
If I remember correctly they basically facilitated the 2019 election at the point when we were within touching distance of a parliamentary majority for a second referendum.
 
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