I don't whether to laugh or cry, as this is the main opposition party to Blair's crappy Labour party. The latest foul-up: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2403923.stm How it may kick IDS in the groin today: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2408255.stm Sounds like the Lib Dems may well be the more credible opposition after all.
Until such a time as someone actually pays any real attention to them and they have a significant margin of votes to protect. Soon as that happens, they'll hotfoot it into the same cozy little centre of the whole game that President Blair and the Tories are scrapping over. Homogenisation of politics, it's called, I am told. Gutless pish, I would venture ...
I wouldn't be surprised if the Lib Dems improve on the last election and close the gap between themselves and the Tories, as Labour voters either stay at home or vote for them out of sheer annoyance of Blair and co. The reason I say they're possibly the stronger oppoition is that they are not as divided as the Tories, and don't have that hangover from the 90's that the Tories also have. Oh, and Thatcher isn't babbling on the sidelines like an demented ghost of Christmas past. Out of the three parties, I'd vote for them, even if Labour steal some of their ideas at times.
Oh yeah, me too. Their policies make by far the most sense, they have the luxury of being able to talk straight because their voters are ideological, rather than tactical and they are not encumbered with all the bullshit that the Tories (Thatcher years, sleaze, incompetence) or Noo Labah! (cronyism, chronic insecurity, control-freakery) stink of. But I still think that you will see them morph into yet another bland, homogenous mainstream political outfit the more credibility they attain at the ballot box. Stands to reason. The more you have to lose by alienating the central ground in politics, the less likely you are to actuall do so. Look at the way Labour basically won power by a) not being the Tories, and b) being Tories. Let’s see how quickly the Lib Dems ditch ideas like legalised cannabis and prostitution, immediate entry into the Euro, a rise in basic income tax to pay for education and higher tax brackets for big earners once they get a whiff of mainstream political acceptance.