AIBU Labour party and LIb-Dems should get together?

[onalongsabbatical]

Is it just me, or is it more and more incomprehensible why the Labour party and the Lib-Dems can’t just fucking co-operate and create some kind of party coalition in order to properly oppose the Tories? AIBU not understanding what’s actually stopping them? I can't see enough difference to justify two parties - and I have myself been in both at different times.

In what ways are they similar? The Lib Dems' only focus is to stop Brexit- let's be honest Corbyn is a leaver.
I can see that certain members in each are aligned in their views, i.e Vince Cable and Chuka Umunna, but not enough to merge.

I'd support anything that stopped Brexit. I was a life-long Labour member until they failed to make a strong stand against it.
The trouble with the Lib-Dems for me is that I don't trust them following the lies about tuition fees and climbing into bed with the Tories to form the disastrous coalition. I cannot muster any respect for their election of Tim Farron as leader, either.

As maligned as we are, I'm rather happy to be in a party that knows where it stands on brexit. I have no desire to fuck that up by aligning myself with Labour.

And that's before you get to the difference between a centerist party vs an increasingly socialist one...

Jen - so the intervention in Iraq based upon lies that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians wasn't enough to put an end to your labour support, but the tuition fees matter is something to erode your trust two changes of leadership later (Farron voted against tuition fees btw)?

It grinds my fucking gears that people are so selective (and monotonous) about their party history. Deal with the parties as the currently are, don't repeat the same tedious rhetoric people have been using for years to evaluate them.

But look at the vast differences in the Tory party – from Rees-Mogg to Ken Clarke to Anna Soubry to Teresa May? And then when the chips are down they pull together and THAT’S how they hold on to power. Why can’t the left do that? And really, tuition fees yes I know but do we want the Tories for fifty years because we can’t let go of tuition fees, which they admit was a mistake?

I'm a (mostly) Lib-Dem voter. I would consider voting for a party with Chuka Umuna at the helm.

I would no sooner vote for Corbyn/McDonnell/Abbott than fly in the air.

thecatsthecats I agree with your post, thanks, that's helpful.

I would no sooner vote for Corbyn/McDonnell/Abbott than fly in the air.

totally agree!

I can’t support either of them anymore. I turned momentarily to Lib Dem’s after Labour’s TWAW stance started to really grate then found out Lib Dem’s think that also.

I know but do we want the Tories

Apparently we do, because people keep voting more for them than any other party. I'm pretty sure Labour and the LibDems will have considered your little wheeze already though, and the fact it hasn't happened is the outcome of that.

At the moment Lib Dems are in free fall following their coalition debacle. Maybe they can - eventually - leave memories behind the right wing direction Clegg took them in. I doubt the public will buy it just yet.

Even if they did that, Labour is more left than centrist at the moment and Lib Dems would be centrist if they returned to towards natural constituency/following.

Left is a good working groove for Labour and - frankly - looks better than the current scary Tories

I'm just sick of the status quo. Anyway I'm out now for a couple of hours and hoping to come back and find a vigorous and healthy debate going on, and not that this fizzles out for lack of interest. Don't let me down mnetters!

Piper. I wouldn’t be so sure about Chuka - I know him from his pre-politics days. He’s no heavy weight by any stretch. Ultimate “style over substance”.

@thecatsthecats Corbyn voted against the Iraq war, indeed he actively protested against it.

At this stage, if there was an election before March next year I would vote for anyone who gave me a glimmer of hope there was a way out of Brexit. I'm a lifelong Labour voter (and until recently, a member) too. I was never a Corbynite but his stance on Brexit is shit. Plus a competent politician would've made all the antisemitism stuff go away by now.

Ultimate “style over substance”. well we ducked out of the leadership run pretty quick so I fear so backbone there

Bombardier

I expect nothing less of him, but you missed my point.

I don't think Labour in their current form should be held to account for Labour under Blair.

So when Labour supporters whinge about tuition fees (the validity of the whinge being highly questionable, but that's another day), I can't help question why it's ok to attack one political party under different leadership in different circumstances, but not to hold their own party to account for historical matters either. It would be no more logical to priase the current Lib Dem party for their stance against the war.

And if your moral compass thinks that tuition fees are enough to keep harping on about lies, then surely HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DEATHS should maybe rank highly too?

By the way I have no issue whatsoever with, for example Carrots, who is shunning both parties for their current stances.

thecatsthecats rightly or wrongly I will never vote/forgive Labour for what they did under Blair, even though Blair and Corbyn are completely different leaders, (I wouldnt vote for the latter antisemite either) I dont think the party as a whole has ever acknowledged all the destructive things they did under him.
Many people the generation above me cant forgive the Tories for Thatcher.

Is there anything left of the LibDems for Labour to join?

I'm a Lib Dem but, like most of the Lib Dems I know, I'd far rather have a Conservative government than a Corbyn government.

There's no way I'd want my party to - or any way that it ever would - team up with people whose policies are so far to the left of ours.

Diane Abbott? No fucking chance! They are not the Labour I used to know or even recognise.

I’ve been a LibDem member since I was 16. I’m a social AND economic liberal. I think they might still call us Orange bookers, and we make up a significant proportion of the membership. The current Labour Party ( Corbyn and his Monentum pilgrims) is neither and they have sweet FA to offer me.

If Ummuna, Stella Creasy, Yvette Cooper, Jess Philips, David Miliband, in fact any left of centre, liberal moderates were at the helm then I think you’d be o to something. But team up with this bunch of loons? I’d rather eat weed-on Go-Cat.

And hello to other LibDems on this thread. In deepest blue Essex, I rarely meet another in real life 🙂