I wonder if this will turn people off the LDs...
My reasoning is I had a quick look on facebook and it seems like lots of people have no idea what they stand for and are now appalled
Yeah definitely. I've been a lib dem supporter for the last few years (having previously been a card carrying member of the labour party) since they seemed to drift leftwards as labour moved in the other direction. How they can even begin to find common ground for a formal coalition with the tories has left me incredibly disillusioned with them and I really don't know where my allegiances lie now. Guess i'm just a political slut
Interesting letter in the Times today from a lifelong LibDem supporter equally disgusted at the prospect of working with the Labour party. Their main beef involved citing liberal principles and that the Labour government wants the state to dominate it's citizens lives from cradle to death.
I think that the party that supports proportional representation has a duty to demonstrate to the electorate that political partys working together is actually possible in this country. The case for PR will be much stronger if this new government lasts a full term, I agree with Paddy Ashdown in that respect.
The Liberal Democrats were in a bit of a lose-lose-lose situation, a deal with the Labour party really wasn't possible. The tiny parties could have been bought easily enough, and it's not them, or the media that would have brought the whole thing down after a few weeks/months. It would have been Labour rebels.
Cue massive Tory majority from resultant general election.
Doing a deal with neither of them wouldn't sit well with anyone. Would make some LibDem activists feel good about themselves perhaps, but just as many would see Nick Clegg as having squandered a once in a generation oppurtunity.
The resultant Tory minority government would probably become a Tory government with a slim majority before too long. The media would find a way to sell it that the LibDems forced the country into another general election rather than the Torys.
Your party is in a good position now, and also playing a good long game on PR. (Anyone who thinks that Nick Clegg could have gotten a deal on a referendum for STV from Labour isn't looking at the political reality. The Labour party being completely divided on that without any leader to unite them. Not to mention losing masses of amounts of public support by the need to bribe some tiny parties and perpetually wearing the monicker of being the coalition of losers) He also wouldn't have gotten more out of the Torys (who almost wanted them to walk away from the deal I felt, so long as they could sell it that they'd offered something reasonable)
Don't know why I'm canvassing on behalf of the LibDems here, but it's not a good time to walk away from your Party because your leader has done the only thing he could have.
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