Fairly explanatory, I guess. Personally, even though I voted tactically "against" them in the last election, I feel my only choice is Labour. There's no way I want to see the Conservatives again, The Lib Dems have just shown themselves to be cheap whores for power and I don't take any of the others particularly seriously.

Labour. It would be different if we had proportional representation, which we should.

Believe it or not I am honestly still undecided on the Lib Dem "performance" in this government. It was obvious they were going to grab their chance to be in power no matter who it was with, so I don't really have an issue with that.

It was their only chance to at least try and look like a serious party. I've not gone through everything they claim to have achieved in coalition but even for things like the tuition fees I struggle to be angry at them for allowing it. Their manifesto (and any party's) is for if they get into government on their own, they didn't so there has to be compromises.

Though I do agree it looks like they've just let the Tories do what they want in the most part, but they are only the minor party in the coalition.

Either way, Labour.

Why not start Teh Party?

Can I be Vice Chair?

Chair of vice? Certainly, you're ideally suited.

That's what I was hoping.

I do find it amusing how much vitriol people throw at the Lib Dems (which is not to say some of it is not justified) for not doing exactly everything that they said they would do, as if they're somehow expected to be able to veto everything that the Conservatives push for. I kind of hope that once the coalition ends, for whatever reason, some dirty laundry gets aired.

I suspect people wouldn't have quite so much vitriol if they'd give the impression they even try to get their own promises through, rather than sounding like they were actually quite cheery to throw them away in exchange for a seat at the big table. The odd minor crumb like a flawed vote for AV aside.

Frankly, I think the Dems should have been a continual, and painful, thorn in the side of the Conservatives. As it happens, at best they're a compliant partner in a shit governance and at worst they're the beaten wife.

Either way, they've done little to contribute anything useful and done little to stop the Conservatives doing pretty much what they want.

I really don't know but I do seem to lean towards the Tories as the local Councillor has done some good things in Newbury and the area surrounding it. More money pushed into public transport and street upkeep, more access to help for people with money / drug problems to name a few things. It all depends on if you are thinking locally or nationally.

General Election = nationally innit. Surely? Interesting that it took a tory to get your area that stuff, who was in beforehand?

We went from Labour to Conservative at the last GE. Can't say I've noticed any difference at all locally though.

LibDems and the Councillor was also pretty good but got bogged down NIMBY problems towards the end which I think lost him his control.

There's no way I'm voting for a party controlled by shit-encrusted arseholes who don't care in the slightest about representing the populace or making things better for anyone except themselves and those who bribe them.

So in that list, that leaves the Greens or abstination.

I was going to say that the Green party was just a single-track party, but on checking up it seems they do actually have policies beyond [misguided] environmentalism. Not yet determined whether I agree with them, but I guess I'll take a closer look when the election actually turns up and consider whether to spend the futile effort on voting for the Greens rather than abstaining.

I don't mind the manifesto pledge stuff, manifestos are a list of stuff they want to do, a way to judge a party based on its ambitions and useful as such. I think it's wrong to think of them as firm promises.

What bothers me is that many LibDem MPs signed personal pledges that they'd never vote for a tuition fee increase. They put their own name and signature on a firm personal promise. And then did the opposite.

And they turned my (well, not mine, mine didn't count due to our fucked electoral system) LibDem vote into a Tory vote. Which for me, and I think many LibDem voters, is the absolute diametrical opposite of what I wanted.

And they accepted a free vote on election reform. That was so cowardly it made me feel sick.

So yeah. I'll never vote LibDem ever again. Fuck the Lib Dems. The Tories may be cunts but at least they stick to what they believe in. At least they have beliefs.

If I vote, and I probably won't, it'll be Labour.

That's not why we throw vitriol. People understand compromise. What I don't understand is, as I said above, turning my vote into its opposite.

There were numbers to make a 'left wing' (as far as that still means anything) coalition. More people (about 60% to 40%) who voted voted for a left wing party (Labour, LibDems, Green etc.). But they allied with the Tories.

I think it's more that they didn't do anything at all.

They, unnecessarily, sided with the (from the point of view of a leftie voter) most evil party with the intention of making them slightly less evil. Rather than siding with a good party and getting some good done.

And then they singularly failed to make them less evil. Because the Tories are very fucking good at politicking. They know how to play the media and make sure that the LibDems lose even the small amount of influence they should've had.

 

I voted for Lib Dems, but I'm not totally sure of that.  I want Lib Dems without Clegg and with a promise of never getting into bed with the Tories again.

You'd believe that promise? (cheer)

There would have to be tears of regret or something.