First off stop laughing, I’m being serious and though I like the Liberal Democrats I’ve only ever voted Lib Dems tactically once when I lived in an area where Labour couldn’t win, so I have no vested interest in making this sort of stuff up. I’ve been running a “Who Will You Vote For In […]
Continue Reading Liberal Democrats to Win The General Election!
Ok, so David asked me to write what I’ve been ranting on at him ever since I heard about the election debates. So I get to type a huge wall of text and pretend people care about my opinion :D
Disclaimer: I’m not a political expert, I’m not with any insider political know how. This is my 2c, and I need something to do while I can’t sleep. Take it as a pinch of salt or worship it as a bible for some strange religion, I don’t care which.
As we all know, the road to this election as been rocky. Even ignoring the economic down turn, Iraq still not happy with being liberated, and bank owners rolling around in taxpayers money, there was the expenses scandal.
Anyone who has even slight contact with the rest of the world will know that earlier this year, it turned out that a large amount of MP’s had been abusing the expenses rules to steal taxpayers money for all sorts of goods, from houses to chocolate bars. Not only that, it turned out it had been going on for a very very long time. The backlash was immense; people fired, media outrage, and a public trust in parliament destroyed, since people were actually surprised when politicians were caught lying to us (again). And to think this was started by a journalist finding out about a little posh duck house. There is also the state of the two current parties.
Labour has made some mistakes in the past 4 years, and more worryingly enough if they keep going the way they are, we’ll end up with the same amount of human rights as China, AKA none at all. Throw in the fact that Gordon brown is as charismatic and interesting as watching paint dry and it isn’t looking good for them. Sure most of his policies will keep the country generally in one piece and still working, but he don’t exactly give off a ‘leader’ vibe. I’m not excited for voting for them.
And nobody likes the Conservatives. Not even the Conservatives like the Conservatives. Say the words Tories to anyone over 20 who isn’t a millionaire, and you’ll invoke memories of Thatcher doing her darn best to screw up the country as much as possible. And David Cameron. He symbolizes everything people don’t like about politics. Always has the right words, so slick he doesn’t walk to places as much as slides to them. During his speeches I’m half expecting him to tell me how to get a better deal on my car insurance. And his policies are…. vague. He’s going to lower taxes, cut the national debt, keep public spending at the same level. And he’s going to do that by buying less paperclips at Whitehall? Riiight…. And after he does all that he’ll work on finding a cure for cancer.
Nobody likes either party, evident by the possibility of a hung parliament. Sure there are other parties, but they usually are far to radical. UKIP wants to kick us out of the EU, BNP wants to kick everyone out of the UK, SNP want to kick Scotland out of the UK, Plaid Cymru want to kick Wales out of the UK, the Greens want to kick none vegetarians out of the UK, and the loony party just want to kick people in the shins for the fun of it.
The only serious third party is the Liberal Democrats. But they have (Or had :D) a stigma attached to them. A couple years back there was a poll that stated 30% of people believed that it didn’t matter what policies Lib Dems had, they would never get in. Sadly enough the people they had polled were Lib Dem supporters! There is a idea that voting for Lib Dems is a wasted vote, and even though people don’t like the other two parties, people want their vote to count. It is a never ending loop of self destruction. People don’t vote for them because people don’t vote for them, which means people don’t vote for them. What was needed was a huge have of support coming in all at once, to make the party seem like a real candidate. So in came TV.
Anyone who knows anything about history knows TV is huge in politics. The famous JFK debate is a good example, but even here in the UK it has happened before. David Cameron was a -relatively- young candidate that nobody knew, a unknown with only a 1% backing for becoming tory leader. Until during the campaign for leadership, he went on TV, and did a brilliant speech (I don’t like Conservatives, but even I agree it was a kick ass awesome speech.) All of a sudden David Cameron had 30% backing and was a real candidate.
And the same thing happened here. For 90 minutes all prejudice of all the parties was gone, it was just them, their policies, and 10 million+ voters (the estimated amount who watched the debate). And this is where the Lib Dems excel. Like a child who don’t have a enough attention, Lib Dems have a habit of creating detailed plans to over compensate. They were reasonable, had a scary amount of common sense in them, and the manifesto shows exactly where all this cash comes from, meaning he had exact answers, rather then avoiding the main intent of a question. Sure Brown did ok, but then people’s expectations were rock bottom. The only way he could been worse was to state he hated all Jews, blacks and gays. The real loser was the Tories. If I wasn’t sure before I wasn’t voting for them, I am now. Conservatives and Economy are rather like a bull and a china shop. Sure change is a good idea, but not all change is good. Setting fire to my house is ‘change’, change needs to be done with a clear reason and goals, else all you end up with is singed hairs and smoke.
Will this debate be the end of it? No. There is still everything to play for with the upcoming round 2 and 3, however I’m interested to see what gains, if any, Lib Dems have made in the official polls. 4-6 Million people saw Nick Clegg as a better leader, and if that isn’t the start of something, nothing is.
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Just to confirm that’s my eldest son, barely ever talks to his Mum online despite having an easy option to chat for free (hint, hint) and sponges of me when he visits when he’s bored during University breaks and wants to talk to interesting people!
He’s been saying for sometime the live TV debates could make a big difference if the Lib Dems seized the moment like various US presidents have in the past (which Nick Clegg did, or to be more precise Gordon Brown and David Cameron were poor handing him the debate).
I argued we don’t have a presidential system, the British electorate vote for the party not the personality of the leader, looks like I might be wrong.
I wonder if Gordon Brown and David Cameron are regretting the decision to participate in live TV debates yet :-) Dumb ass decision by David Cameron, he had the most to loose and lost it! Gordon Brown, what’s he got to loose, barely anyone likes him (I happen to like him BTW) or Labour so if it went badly it’s just another negative in a string of negatives: only so much mud sticks, before it starts falling off.
I think the only reason why Labours support has held up so well despite all the problems is the British people dislike the Tories so much! It’s going to take something really, really bad for the majority of Labour voters to trust the Conservatives again especially with them calling everything wrong on how to deal with the recession!
Will be interesting to see if the Lib Dems become the choice for those who have had enough of Labour, but can’t bring themselves to vote Tory, but also don’t want to waste their vote.
BTW Son, you know you can call me Dad :-)
David
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Hi,
The very first election i voted in was in 1992 , the General. The funny thing is i wanted labour to win and yet i voted LibDem. I find the LibDems to be ever more close to my political ideals.They have taken over from Old Labour in that they are to me the Socialists now.
They won’t always be the 3rd party, i only hope that it isn’t the Labour Party that go downhill.
Nick Clegg was definately the best on T.V.’s first debate and i imagine he will win both other debates as well. Will enough people vote for him to be PM? Yep i think they might just , but will he have enough seats? No! unfortunately not, our crazy system makes pay to that.
Hung Parliament- I hope so and i hope as Brown said on t.v. I agree with ‘Nick’ means how it sounded….
Unless David Cameron Gets a full mandate (over 326). There will be NO! Conservative Government for a while yet..
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Maybe I used to vote Labour, but voting for a £10 ,000
tax allownace is anything but a wasted vote.Alternative to vote Tory, if there was any point, I dont think so.
Does a vote for the lib dems really mean a wasted vote? If all those people who would vote lib dem actually voted for them rather than thinking it would be a wasted vote then it would make enough of a difference to maybe turn the tide and have enough seats for them to become a larger party.
I find it interesting that, Vince Cable won the Lib Dems the first debate, and people said they would like to see him as the Chancellor. Nick Clegg has won the second debate and seems to be the person people would like most to be PM according to all the post debate polls. So why the reluctance for people to get out and vote for them? If you liked what you have seen on the first 2 debates, then please vote on what you have seen with your own eyes and then listen to your own brain and own heart.
It would be nice to see the Green Party give their backing to the Lib Dems as UKIP are doing with 6 Euro Sceptics; (Norwich in particular), better still, the Greens should all join the Lib Dems as the green policies seem a lot more thought out and costed with the Lib Dems than the Green Party.
The stigma with all the single issue parties is that how can you let them run the country when they only think about one thing is quite right IMOP be it the BNP or the Greens. So whether the issue is the environment or immigration, then vote for one of the general parties – as it happens, the Lib Dems seem to have this right as well. If for example your town is unbalanced in terms of the demographic, the Lib Dem policy will stop more immigration into your area. If you live in somewhere like Boston where the local population doesn’t want to get up early and pick veg – they can have people come in who are happy to do it.
All this common sense is very refreshing!
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After last night’s leaders debate where Nick Clegg showed he has the credentials to be a successful PM, the whole country seems to have shifted it’s views from it’s a “two horse race” to genuinely believing that is now a 3 way battle to win the election.
And with the Lib Dems gaining in all the polls on a daily basis over the last week or so, it would be a naive person who would rule them out of the running.
I think Nick Clegg & the Lib Dems could really upset the pundits & bookies (who have slashed their odds this week) by winning this election.
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Everything that has been said about the debate is really encouraging for old-guard Libs (Lib Dems) like me, who first voted for the Libs in 1974 (and took a lot of stick from my flat-mates for not voting Labour). But don’t get too excited yet. Although Clegg clearly did best of the three in the first debate, if only by becoming visible in the media and forcing papers like the Sun to acknowledge he is there, don’t forget it was only the first one: there are two debates to go. It is going to be very interesting to see how the other two leaders play these. They could either cosy up, reckoning that there could be a hung parliament and they would need help, or (and I think this is more likely) they could go after him really hard like the old-fashioned politicians they both are. Don’t forget that Cameron was a back room boy for Major’s unexpected triumph in 1992, and knows how to land a hard punch. If Cameron cosies up too much to Clegg, then he runs the risk of losing more support to UKIP than he would wish. If Brown goes too far the same way, then will his supporters turn out? They’ll need to create clear blue/red water between themselves and the LDs. I think that Nick Clegg has everything to play for in the next two weeks, but it is going to be a much harder game than it was last night.
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I’m not able to vote yet however if I had the chance it would definately be for Lib Dems, and not just because of last night’s debate. Personally, without being overly critical of the other leaders I believe we need someone like Clegg to rule the country, rather than the old fashioned policians with old fashioned ideas, repeating the past. His ideas are proven to be financially feasible within the manifesto and he has shown great leadership skills, which quite frankly I don’t believe people knew he had! It’s going to be tough with Cameron getting any gossip he can on the Lib Dem’s, however I feel as if they will be the best party for the job. He appears the most genuine out of the three and his policies are beneficial to most, if not all people, where as Conservatives plan to put up tax and VAT, which isn’t going to help the recession or the typical working class person at all. Many people seem to believe that a vote for Lib Dem’s is a waste of a vote, however if they actually voted maybe they’d get somewhere, which is what people need to realise as they’re the kind of modern party we need, rather than others which will result in repetition of history. Vote Lib Dems!
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Lib Dems, are you crazy so your all happy with laws being made but the EU and not UK? Also you want to join the the Euro over British Pound?
In that case makes WW2 seem pointless to give powers over to the dictatorship known as Europe.
I say vote UKIP.
Generally I’m a floating voter. I’ve voted Labour, UKIP and Liberal Dem in the past. I’m interested in politics but not a political geek.
My only known voting intention is not to vote Conservative…the reason? because I was one of Maggie’s unemployed in the 80s, the Conservatives let me down then and I haven’t trusted them since. Their ‘no such thing as society’ views at the time are the basis of the lack of respect in society which we see today in my opinion.
Although it’s easy to kick Labour going into this election, I personally think Gordon Brown has been dealt the ‘mother of all hands’ since he came in and it’s actually great credit to him that he’s battled through it and we are technically out of recession again. I generally get the feeling that Labour do things in dubious ways but generally for the right reasons so although not comfortable with that, I’ll give them the benefit.
Before the live debate I was increasingly thinking that Liberal Democrat policies most suited my view of life and my beliefs, as they are generally ‘common sense’ policies rather than policies dreamt up just to win votes. However I wondered whether voting for Lib Dems would be a wasted vote for the reasons in one of the posts above.
Post debate I think I’m going to vote Lib Dem because I like their policies, I like what I saw of Nick Clegg and Vince Cable under pressure and I can’t see the point in returning either of the other two again.
What I think is a winner is that if the parties returned numbers of seats that meant that we truly could say next time that any of the 3 parties could win, then the quality of debate has to be more positive than the negative party-bashing that we’ve seen over the years to date… politics is then engaging.
I think the Conservatives really need to think again if they plan to go dirty as their vote could truly collapse…no one likes a bully.
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