To ask if you would vote lib dem again?

[EdnaClouds]

I know my dh is very disillusioned. How about you?

Not a chance. I wanted tuition fees lowered or cancelled.

Not with Nik Clegg at the helm. There is absoutley no excuse for them supporting the tution fees increase.
I have voted for lib dem as alternative to labour in many elections ( though not in the last) . Not likely I will again until there is a change of leader.

Not after the student finance fiasco.

I would vote for any other party who was a serious contender against the tories - the important thing is to get rid of those callous bastards who are hell bent on picking on the disabled, sick and vunerable I agree the libs have probably helped put up some of a fight against the worst of the tory policies so some credit to them.

I can't see the lib dems being a serious contender ever again though..

Mine was tactical, didn't work though Francis bloody Maude still won.
But no, I wouldn't. Clegg has gone against his party so many times.
Perhaps I would if Clegg was no longer leader.

I will never forget when Nick Clegg excused the appalling student finance backtrack and other U-turns by saying that the Lib Dems could not be expected to stick to any of their pre-election promises when they were only part of a coalition........ nobody in the country, not even his own mum, expects them to form a majority government, they will only ever be part of a coalition, yet here he is saying they can't promise to stick to their specific policies.

With that he has destroyed the whole party's reputation and integrity and I think (with a good campaign from the students) they will be wiped out at the next election.

I voted for them last time as they were the only viable alternative to the Conservatives where I live. Never again.

I might, especially given the lack of good alternatives, but feel like I would need some convincing or some sort of change (will read up on that Liberal Left stuff if I ever get a chance). Plus what boulevard said made me think.

Saying that, our current MP is Labour and I have been quite impressed with her so far. Have written her several letters and she's always sent a proper reply and forwarded issues on to the relevant people, and seems to support many of the things I was asking her about. But I'm not convinced by Labour overall atm (and our Lib Dem councillors have also been very good).

no way never again, I might as well have voted conservs

Nope. Never again. Voted for them last time and honestly feel it was a wasted vote. Never in a million years did I ever dream they'd form a coalition with the arch enemy.

I think this country would do well with a few Green MPs. There's no point worrying what their policies are on certain things and how would they run a government etc, because they will clearly never get in. But a few voices in parliament would be a good thing.

IMO.

Not bloody likely. Never again. I might even be rude if they dared knock on my door.

I was a lib dem voter for years, and this time is definitely the last. (note, under new fees, I wouldn't be able to be a student again, even at the open uni.).

Won't make any difference here, we have new borders which mean we'll always be tory

Had a lovely power cut so lost half of the post......what is happening to benefits is unforgivable. So along with fees, neither I, nor DH, will vote lib dem again

The trouble is, they know that everyone feels like this - and that means they'll never break the coalition, no matter what the Tories get up to. Because if they withdraw, there'd need to be an election, and that would be the end of them, for a generation at least, possibly for ever. The Tories know that, of course...

People forget that labour came second in the GE. so no way would I vote for the Libs because it gives more chance of them forming another coalition with the Tories (which I reckon is what will happen in the next election)

I voted LD because only alternative to Tories in my area (and election leaflets convinced me I needed to vote LD to "keep the Tories out"). Never again, I'd rather waste a vote on the Labour candidate than vote for someone who pleaded with me to help keep the Tories out then enabled them to carry out policies that no one had had a chance to vote for (NHS, tuition fees) and that I am strongly against. Relatively safe LD seat so I doubt they'll miss my vote!

No I wouldn't.

We live in a safe Tory area (lots of people who'd vote Tory whatever the policies were just because they like to think of themselves as Tory and feel they'd be betraying their MC values by voting Labour cos that's for the blue collar workers...)

So DH did vote LD at the election and joined the party. He won't do it again, and the local representative got pretty short shrift when he knocked on the door asking if the LDs could continue to count on his support...

Again, only voted LD for tuition fee pledges.

I went to uni as a mature student. My peers who went straight from school had no fees and a full student grant. By the time I went it was student loans (but no/small tuition fees) and now its £9k a year!

Realistically, DH and will be the first and last generations of our family to go to university. My son wants to go, knows what he wants to study, is academically able, but given that DH and I are public sector workers and DH is on a pay freeze (which, with rising inflation equates to a 25% pay cut in real terms) and I've been budget cut out of a job... we won't be able to afford to support him.

Sometimes, I just feel guilty for even having had the children. I've had nothing from my parents, did the whole lot on my own, and my children need to do the same but it's an entirely different game to it was when I was entering adulthood.

So thanks LD. Thanks a lot.

Actually, it's not just them, it's labour who started the problem and we all knew how the Tory's would deal with it, but LD promised to be different to that.

I agree with OhBuggerandArse.

LD promised a lot of stuff, but they never in a million years thought they would get in so it was all popularist nonsense that no real government could ever realistically deliver.

Now they are in a real government. During a recession.

As trials by fire go, they are performing very well. Tempering the Tories harder policies while also getting some of their own stuff voiced.

'Realistically, DH and will be the first and last generations of our family to go to university'

If the next generation of your falimy has the ability, there is no reason why they shouldn't get the loans and go to university. You dont need to fund them - thats the point.

Nope. My days of tactical voting to keep out the Tories are done. That'll teach me.

Yes, our children can all get loans, the parents don't have to fund it, but the fact remains that our future young degree students will be indebted to the tune of up £27k before we've even talked about living expenses.

These loans may not be a fearful thing for affluent families, but it tends to be people from poorer backgrounds that fear/don't believe in debt. Tuition fees are a serious barrier, even if it is only a psychological fear of getting into debt.

If we want to live in a society where someone from any economic background, rich or poor, council house or mansion, has the same opportunities to become a doctor, a lawyer, an academic scientist, a teacher even, we must have good, free education for all.

I couldn't believe my ears when the LD's started arguing (allbeit weakly) for tuition fees. But then again, I couldn't believe it when LABOUR brought them in the first place!

Exactly runningforthebusinheels

I think the estimated debt is around £50-60k all in.

And I think that when students are going to be paying so much for them, it's a big risk taking on a job too that reduces study time.

My DH worked 30hrs a week to fund his way through university, but had to sacrifice lectures and 'compulsory' trips to do so. He got a 2:1, and only narrowly missed out on a first because of the impact of working alongside studying. That's going to be so much worse in the future if students are getting into so much debt.

"If we want to live in a society where someone from any economic background, rich or poor, council house or mansion, has the same opportunities to become a doctor, a lawyer, an academic scientist, a teacher even, we must have good, free education for all."

The loans do this. There are no barriers to entry any longer.

The whole 'fear' argument doesn't hold water as anyone who is good enough to get to university is good enough to see it as an investment rather than a debt. The rest - well they probably shouldn't be there in the first place.

I disagree mingo, the fears of debt/loans when you come from an impoverished background are well documented.

Anyway, this is a moot point, since the libdems during the election campaign promised to phase out tuition fees. As soon as they get into the coalition they decide that it's 'no longer possible'. Just one of the reasons many people feel betrayed.

Mingo, that's silly. I have a degree from a very good university and I still see it as debt rather than investment as I haven't had any return on it and don't seem likely to do so until the UK starts valuing scientists like Germany and the rest of northern Europe. If you think I should not have been allowed to go to university on this basis, you're welcome to email the Cambridge admissions tutors and give them your, er, unique perspective on reality.

People who are saying LDs had no choice: of course they could have gone into coalition with Labour; why do you think they even had meetings to discuss this if 'there weren't the votes there'- the votes were such that either party could form a coalition, that's what a hung parliament means. And I don't think the 'oooh Brown was unpopular' argument holds any weight as government should be a matter of policy, not personality, ffs!

I might vote lib dem if there was some real evidence that they were sorry for their mistake in forming a coalition and cooperating with the Tories in attacks on vulnerable people. However I think that's very unlikely. I didn't vote for them last time but I have in the distant past. Last time I considered SNP but eventually voted Labour instead because I am not comfortable with any form of nationalism (even 'minority nationalism') and I wasn't comfortable with the pro-employers rhetoric evident in the SNP literature I recieved whereas the Labour candidate I knew to be supportive of the rights of single mothers and others in vulnerable circumstances.

WibblyBibble - IIRC, a Lib Dem/Labour coalition would also have required every single other MP of every flavour, to have a majority. Too many negotiations, too easily held over a barrel by the smaller parties.