I like Ed Davey

[ItsPrettyGoodReally]

Does anybody feel really cheered up by Ed Davey, the leader of the Lib Dems?

I hadn't heard of him before last week, but I love the photos and I really feel so grateful to him for the interview he did on ITV:

https://www.itv.com/news/2024-06-03/sir-ed-davey-opens-up-on-juggling-lib-dem-leadership-and-caring-for-teenage-son

I start to think that he and Keir Starmer would be an absolute knock-out combination if they had a coalition.

I would also love a majority Labour Government. Both good.

Much less talented, as well.

I like most of what I have read of their manifesto and I like that health and social care being central is good. I also thought it was very moving him talking about his son, I do not feel this is using his son its honest struggles than families have

Sadly they will be punished for quite some time for getting into bed with the Tories but they are trying to put that behind them

The have also mentioned the EU I am hoping Labour will but I think they shall swerve this

I am not quite sure why he is presenting as the bumbling accident prone leader of the party, its best left to Boris Johnson it was his thing one we do not need to see repeated

I really hope they do well in the election, I believe in having a strong centre party I feel it is good for the UK unfortunately they are being over shadowed by Reform

I think that Rebecca Jones (candidate for the London Assembly) is different to Becky Jones (Candidate for GE in Bexhill). As far as I can see Helen Belcher is the only Lib Dem trans candidate. Not sure about other parties, tbh. I know that Georgia Meadows was a Labour PPC (but has pulled out of the race). Jamie Wallis (conservative) is so far the only trans MP.

Jamie Wallis is standing down. He was hoping to be parachuted into a constituency where "certain communities congregate" (i.e. Brighton, I expect) but no luck so far, AFAIK.

Rebecca Jones stood in the London Assembly (she was not elected) and is the LibDem candidate in the GE 2024 for Hackney North.

Thanks for the clarification

Where they weigh Diane Abbott’s votes. Her majority was 33k in 2019 and will probably be more this time. Rebecca Jones is an irrelevance.

I think he is false and awful

Ed Davey appears to be having a whale of a time - he knows he can't win, although there's an outside chance of becoming the leader of the opposition. I don't see him presenting himself as bumbling (which is exactly what BoJo did), rather than refreshingly normal. Where the LDs are strong they tend to have genuinely local candidates that are involved in their communities.

I expect they Cons will turn their toxicity on the LDs after the election.

Yup. Dreadful man, caring for his disability son and sick wife while leading one of the main political parties. What a bastard.

The Lib Dems need new leadership. Unfortunately for them, Davey will always be tainted by getting into bed with the Tories & serving as a cabinet minister in the coalition government. In politics, there are some things which can’t be forgiven & forgotten.

However, I would still hold my nose & vote tactically for them if they were the main challenger to the Tories in my area.

BIossomtoes · Today 18:29
Mouswife · Today 18:26

I think he is false and awful
**
Yup. Dreadful man, caring for his disability son and sick wife while leading one of the main political parties. What a bastard.

Indeed. Prior to that his sick mother too, when he was a child. What a cunt.

I’ll not vote for them but with the others banging on about judging them by their record/actions, he’s a decent human being.

StripedPiggy · Today 18:30
The Lib Dems need new leadership. Unfortunately for them, Davey will always be tainted by getting into bed with the Tories & serving as a cabinet minister in the coalition government”

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with coalition governments. They’ve worked in successful countries around the world for years.

Your option is join a coalition and try to limit the damage the Tories do from within or ineffectually snipe from the sidelines. The first choice is clearly the most expedient.

”Getting into bed with” is a stupid phrase.

Yep, it's a no from me.

He did get into bed with the Tories. They could have formed a government with Labour.

Actually he didn’t. That was Clegg.

Clegg was the leader but the party (including Davey) made the decision to join the Tories.

And Ed Davey held under-secretary and secretary of state posts throughout the period of the coalition government.

Round the cabinet table with the Tories. Different piece of furniture, same principle.

Not easily. A Lib-Lab coalition would have been an unstable minority government. Labour rejected a rainbow coalition involving the SNP so there wasn't enough support from the other minority parties to make it work.

Clegg spoke with both the Conservatives and Labour, but he'd stated before the election when the possibility of LidDems acting as kingmaker became a possibliity that it would be his policy to first seek a coalition with the party with the most seats and not to create an unstable minority government. As the Conservatives had the largest number of seats and a coalition with Labour would be a minority government, there wasn't a viable alternative.

The LibDems did get the electoral reform referendum in 2011, which could have revolutionized UK politics. Unfortunately, it wasn't the referendum anyone wanted and the AV option wasn't popular amongst even those that did want ER.

He’s awful imo. Doesn’t know what a woman is and is hopelessly tied up with the post office scandal.

He decided to ok join the government too and was a minister in the coalition government. He was involved in the post office scandal

It's the only way the press will talk about them, they are an established political party with serving MPs and they get less air time/paper space than Reform UK.

It would have been challenging but not impossible for a minority coalition. I can’t get past the LibDem collusion on the austerity policy. People talk about Brexit but the impact austerity has had on the country particularly the most vulnerable is why things are so bleak now. I’ll never forgive them. 150,000 people died as a direct result of that policy.
As for the Referendum, that was the reason the LibDems jumped in with the Tories. They were happy to spend millions on a vote they lost while sanctioning the closure of Sure Start Centres. I can’t get past that.

I can’t get past that.

Politics is betrayal. There isn't a single party that hasn't in the last twenty or so years betrayed one or more groups that have given them support.

If you can't get past that and vote for the hear and now looking forward, you're destined to forever remain embittered by the whole shit show.

My position is that I don't care who anyone votes for, as long as they vote, and they vote for the future not the past. I know which candidate in my constituency represents the best choice for the future and I will vote for them. We vote for candidates, not parties in this country. As it happens, that candidate also represents the party that imperfectly but best aligns with my positions on the most issues. I disagree with them on several positions, but on balance they're better than the other options.