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Well that's the Union dead, No way it will survive with the SNP basically controlling all of Scotland and the Tories having a majority. There will be calls for another referendum, especially if there is one on the EU. We face the very real possibility of the UK leaving the EU and then splitting itself apart. That's where our politicians have got this country.
Looking forward to it.
 
Yeovil was lost on Laws' expenses scandal from what I can tell (my facebook feed is full of Yeovillians) if someone else had run it probably would of been a hold.
Theresa May has basically said that the Tories are giving extra powers to the Police/Security Forces to monitor the internet, and that they couldn't do this before because the Lib Dems blocked it.

Bye bye personal privacy, hello being sent to the gulag for saying David Cameron is a puffy faced swan eating c*** on twitter.
If there's an issue I disagree with the party about it's this one. I work in communications monitoring industry (I don't work at GCHQ) believe when is say the doommongering is completely off the mark, it's impossible to mass monitor the internet to scale of actually looking at what people say and do unless you actively target them. currently I belive the power are about expanding what can be done on voice calls to that of the internet which requires a warrant signed by the Home Secretary of which very few are issued a year.

Believe me knowing what other governments do we really have nothing to worry about.
 
Good thing about SNP winning so many seats is that they despise the Tories and will do everything they can to oppose them.

Which is near SFA, with the added bonus that since the Tory majority is so slim, they'll have to pander even further to their right wing to keep them in line?

Also, the SNP can jump up and down all they like, but Westminster doesn't have to give them one and given the "Once in a generation" comments, they're completely morally in their rights to do so. Not that all the idiots who start foaming at the mouth when they hear "Tory" would agree, mind...
 
I have no complaints about Tories been in charge for next 5 years, they have done ok past 5 years and of course borrowed a few ideas off Lib Dems who were always going to suffer last night, they could have just stayed in middle and voted either way but they wanted the job titles and now they must pay for that decision.

Labour need a leader who can really give Cameron a real challenge in debates but also has the ability to get the people on labour's side.

Lib Dem i hope with a new leader can start to repair the damage and become a real different party again compared to the big two.

SNP fair play to them for hammering Labour in Scotland and as for UKIP will they just fade away now ?
 
The Lib Dems have always stood in the centre on British politics though; indeed, that's probably their main differentiation to the other two. As for the idea a political party should be punished for taking power, well...
 
Labour need a leader who can really give Cameron a real challenge in debates but also has the ability to get the people on labour's side.

I'd love for Dan Jarvis to take the reigns - ex- Para, so would be the only world leader I'd back to take Putin in a fist fight.
Think that he had a long career in the army before becoming an MP would also help his image/peoples perception of him, i.e. he's not just some private school kid who's never lived in the real world. (Also an Aberystwyth alumni so that automatically makes him great :p)

But apparently Chuku Umunna is the favourite, and he's as close to a robot as you can get.
 
The Lib Dems have always stood in the centre on British politics though; indeed, that's probably their main differentiation to the other two. As for the idea a political party should be punished for taking power, well...

I agree!!

Clegg's decison to be part of the coalition was brave and proper. Problem for them was more about the perception that he backtracked on student loans when, in fact, the Labour Government brought them in originally and one of the austerity measures the Tories wanted was to retain them which Clegg had to concede as the price he had to pay to get other measures through (I believe it was a higher tax exemption for the low income earner).

Brave decision and he has been punished for it but this was assissted by Tory strategists strongly campainging and targeting the LibDem seats to ensure their own survival.

I do agree with Clegg that history will judge their part in the coalition better than the electorate yesterday!!

I'd love for Dan Jarvis to take the reigns - ex- Para, so would be the only world leader I'd back to take Putin in a fist fight.
Think that he had a long career in the army before becoming an MP would also help his image/peoples perception of him, i.e. he's not just some private school kid who's never lived in the real world. (Also an Aberystwyth alumni so that automatically makes him great :p)

But apparently Chuku Umunna is the favourite, and he's as close to a robot as you can get.

I think they should get Jim Murphy from Scotland................he has the strength, humility, eloquence and belief that is required and is not one of the suited and booted professional socialist policitians that remind me of Millipede who was there for the job with no experience of life!!

Andrew Neill said Burnham was the favourite and Chukitup was about fifth in the odds?
 
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I think they should get Jim Murphy from Scotland................he has the strength, humility, eloquence and belief that is required and is not one of the suited and booted professional socialist policitians that remind me of Millipede who was there for the job with no experience of life!!

Andrew Neill said Burnham was the favourite and Chukitup was about fifth in the odds?

Ah, I've not checked the bookies, just going off of something I read earlier.

Bet365 has Umunna as favourite, Burnham ever so slightly behind, Yvette Cooper a bit behind them and then Jarvis a decent amount behind her.

Murphy is way back at 80/1 - makes me think he's said something to suggest he doesn't want the role? I know he's said he's definitely staying on as the head of Labour in Scotland, maybe he feels he has unfinished business up there?
 
Ah, I've not checked the bookies, just going off of something I read earlier.

Bet365 has Umunna as favourite, Burnham ever so slightly behind, Yvette Cooper a bit behind them and then Jarvis a decent amount behind her.

Murphy is way back at 80/1 - makes me think he's said something to suggest he doesn't want the role? I know he's said he's definitely staying on as the head of Labour in Scotland, maybe he feels he has unfinished business up there?

He is too good to be wasted in Scotland but there again he is Scottish so is probably thinking he wants to save his country rather than the bigger picture!

He has a job on to save the Scotls from themselves but, as said earlier, if Cameron lets Cavier and her mate Smoked have total power in Scotland, they will stuff it up so fast, Labour could win 58 out of 59 seats next time!!
 
I'd love for Dan Jarvis to take the reigns - ex- Para, so would be the only world leader I'd back to take Putin in a fist fight.
Think that he had a long career in the army before becoming an MP would also help his image/peoples perception of him, i.e. he's not just some private school kid who's never lived in the real world. (Also an Aberystwyth alumni so that automatically makes him great :p)

But apparently Chuku Umunna is the favourite, and he's as close to a robot as you can get.

I think Dan Jarvis would be a great choice, met him before because i work in Barnsley ! Top man and would be a great leader for Labour.
 
The Lib Dems have always stood in the centre on British politics though; indeed, that's probably their main differentiation to the other two. As for the idea a political party should be punished for taking power, well...
Not quite true. Liberal Democrats across the board share liberalism as an ideology. They oppose e.g. the snoopers charter, 28 days detention without charge etc. There's a universal desire to empower the poorest.

However, in terms of economic left/right, the party is actually quite varied. The Orange Bookers (Clegg, Laws, Huhne, Alexander, Cable... basically the main Lib Dems in the coalition) occupy the centre/centre-right, sitting closer to classical than social liberalism. They believe in generally shrinking the state and tax cuts for all but the richest, but not privatisation en masse and tax cuts for the rich like neoliberals believe in, and they would broadly support the NHS, welfare etc. Basically, they see the state mainly as a means of supporting the poorest but not much else. These Lib Dems view forming the coalition as being morally right (even if they also think it was a political mistake for the Lib Dems, which it obviously is).

The Beveridge Group and its supporters, on the other hand, occupies the centre-left, further left than the majority of Labour, but not as left as the most leftward of Labour members. They are full on social liberals. In my experience, most Lib Dems fall into this category, and it's mostly this type of Lib Dem that left the party following the Lib Dem dealings with the Tories. They believe it to have been wrong, morally and politically, for the Lib Dems to go into coalition. So it's a bit infuriating that the Orange Bookers, a relatively small faction in the party, managed to hijack the party and drive away the core supporters. Of the 8 remaining MPs, at least 4 are of the Beveridge Group, including the likely next leader, Tim Farron. If Labour swings to the right in reaction to Ed's failing, there's no doubt in my mind that Lib Dems will swing to the left, distance themselves from the Orange Book years and attempt to claw back the social liberals.

Nick Clegg is going to have the hardest ride of any MP in the next 5 years. Ed Miliband will fade into the backbenches. Nick Clegg will sit amongst his 7 other MPs, self-aware of how much the rest want to distance themselves from him and his time as leader. Putting down his decisions will be the only way the Lib Dems will claw back its core supporters, so he may have to be ready to be a punching bag for his next leader. I wonder whether he feels it would have been better had he lost his seat...
 
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Well that's the Union dead, No way it will survive with the SNP basically controlling all of Scotland and the Tories having a majority. There will be calls for another referendum, especially if there is one on the EU. We face the very real possibility of the UK leaving the EU and then splitting itself apart. That's where our politicians have got this country.

Huh? Th people voted for the Conservatives and the people would have to vote for either referendum.

As an LD member/town council candidate (I'm just making up numbers) this result is pretty devastating and we have accept going into government was the wrong plan as we have been resoundly told by voters no.

The votes seams to have evenly swung between Con/Green/Lab on seats we've lost.

Talking about it's a young peoples party, I grew up in a LD constituency (Yeovil yet to declare) and it's not very young there. My facebook feed is mainly full of 30-50 years olds lefty-liberal (some of whom earn a massive ton of money compared to me and I'm above average) and most seam to have switched to Green support. So that assertion looks wrong but I think a lot of people start off LD as students just don't think they switch to Con from what I can tell.

Surely you guys had to go into government? You had been in opposition for about 70 years. In New Zealand we always have confidence and supply agreements and those parties always lose support at the next election. What else can they do? Going into government is the only way to affect change unless you want to be a permanent protest party like SF.
 
Surely you guys had to go into government? You had been in opposition for about 70 years. In New Zealand we always have confidence and supply agreements and those parties always lose support at the next election. What else can they do? Going into government is the only way to affect change unless you want to be a permanent protest party like SF.
They had the option of forming a coalition with Labour. That would have resulted in 315 MPs. This should have been enough to form a government, just about, with support from SNP, Greens and Plaid Cymru on an issue-by-issue basis. Would have been a much weaker coalition, perhaps with a number of failed bills, but it would have been a lot more palatable to the core support of the Lib Dems.
 
They had the option of forming a coalition with Labour. That would have resulted in 315 MPs. This should have been enough to form a government, just about, with support from SNP, Greens and Plaid Cymru on an issue-by-issue basis. Would have been a much weaker coalition, perhaps with a number of failed bills, but it would have been a lot more palatable to the core support of the Lib Dems.

And would have seriously buggered the economy more than it already was.
 
They had the option of forming a coalition with Labour. That would have resulted in 315 MPs. This should have been enough to form a government, just about, with support from SNP, Greens and Plaid Cymru on an issue-by-issue basis. Would have been a much weaker coalition, perhaps with a number of failed bills, but it would have been a lot more palatable to the core support of the Lib Dems.

Then you need 5 parties to pass anything which would be incredibly difficult. If they went with Labour they would be facing the exact same problem. If the LDs are never going to not go with Labour than what is the point of the LDs? Wouldn't they just then be a subset of the Labour party? Isn't the point of the LDs that they represent liberalism in the UK which is vastly different from the Social Democrat outlook of Labour?
 
I am content to call a party where the range is centre-right to just centre-left in the Centre; it seems a solid definition to me - and if they try to veer left of Labour and deny everything they've done, then they lose some more core support (the likes of me and other Lib Dems I know who want something between Blue and Red) with no guarantee of regaining what they had. That's up to them, of course, but I suspect most Lib Dem campaigns in 2020 will revolve as much around local issues that have changed than they on the national picture.
 
First up the people didn't vote conservative only 37% of the population did. This is one of the many things FPTP inflicts on us, a government the majority didn't vote for.

As for going into power there's a difference between me thinking it was the right thing to do and our supporters thinking otherwise. So it was right from a country perspective (IMO) but not a party one.

We will shift left now the real question is by how much. The main focus will be on local issues and targeting seats that way.

As for orange bookers taking over...wWe did vote one as leader can hardly say we're minority that took over the party we wanted him to lead us that way.
 
I am content to call a party where the range is centre-right to just centre-left in the Centre; it seems a solid definition to me - and if they try to veer left of Labour and deny everything they've done, then they lose some more core support (the likes of me and other Lib Dems I know who want something between Blue and Red) with no guarantee of regaining what they had. That's up to them, of course, but I suspect most Lib Dem campaigns in 2020 will revolve as much around local issues that have changed than they on the national picture.
I don't disagree with them being centrists, as Labour are. Both Labour and Lib Dems, and to a lesser extent, the Tories, support mixed economies. Lib Dems just aren't historically in the centre of British politics. Labour and Lib Dems broadly occupy the same economic territory, and it kinda depends on the way in which the leadership pulls each party as to which of the two parties sits in the centre of British politics. New Labour are to the right of the Beveridge Group; the Orange Bookers are to the right of the Labour left.

e.g. see political compass' tracking of Lib Dems/Labour, particularly the way in which the Orange Bookers/New Labour have pulled their parties (bottom of the page):
https://www.politicalcompass.org/ukparties2010
 
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