so now youve had chance to think about it....

[ThatVikRinA22]

are you happy with how you voted?

i currently work in the nhs and am about to go into policing within the next month. 2 areas that are about to get axed massively.

are you happy with how you voted? i am the only one in my household and in my workplace who feels i was true to my beliefs and is still happy with how i voted.

are you still happy or do you think your were duped?

i voted labour and i would again.

Lib Dem, never voting for them again.

would vote same party again

I was forced to vote lib dem because of the lack of a labour candidate.

It makes me sick that I essentially voted Tory.

It will never ever happen again - what a bunch of traitors to the left.

Voted LibDem last time (anti war) but Labour this time, thank goodness. Joined the Labour party the week after the election. Nuff said.

It's going to be a frightening time to be old, or very young, or sick... unless you are very wealthy of course, in which case you'll be fine.

And (in common with many respected economists) I don't belive the cuts are necessary on the scale they are being proposed. We are not Greece and the Tory agenda is ideologically driven and very frightening.

they are supposedly centre left Giddy

Supposedly favouring higher taxes for public services

And a welfare state

Oh and they are pro europe and green issues.

Oh and yes, against the unelected in the H of Lords

So, yes, traitors

RainbowRainbow so true that this agenda is highly ideological,and all the media swinging in behind. Well, the Times anyway- it's beginning to make me feel a bit sick!

It is the left wing ideology that is generally the important point - i.e. that they aim to help the worse off (whatever variant they use to do that).

The right wing ideology of not helping the worse off is the bit which grates the most about this coalition amongst those who may have voted for them.

I agree with HH, they have sacrificed everything they ever believed in for a bit of power

Let us not forget that they got 57 poxy seats at the election.

What liberalism actually appears to mean under Clegg is privatising the NHS. That's what all this stuff about turning all hospitals into foundation trusts and then floating them off as social enterprises amounts to.

It's not what most of the electorate voted for. Wasn't in the Tory manifesto. Obviously not what Labour voters wanted and their party came second. And I doubt very much whether more than one in ten of the people who voted Lib Dem realised what it meant.

Giddy - or to put it another way, through red-in-tooth-and-claw capitalism. Economic liberalism is more Thatcherite than Labour-lite.

People have forgotten, or never knew, what Liberal economics means. Possibly because Thatch was nominally a Tory although actually in economic terms a core liberal. Traditional Tories were opposed to the free market.

As a lifelong Labour voter, I voted LibDem - tactically, to keep the Tories out in my constituency.

Now I wonder why I bothered leaving the house.

What's confusing, maybe, for the Lib Dem party (or voters) is that their name came about when the Liberals merged with the Social Democrats - who were viewed as left of centre.

Voted Lib Dem and devastated by the destruction of the NHS that is coming
Would NEVER have voted Tory and wish I had just voted Labour (wasted vote but hey ho) and been done with it
Feel totally betrayed by the LDP

Lefties are in denial about the Lib Dems.

Sure, there are the socialist remnants like Charles Kennedy and Vince Cable - but many are there because they are genuine liberals.

They believe in free markets and free people - an agenda I wholeheartedly endorse.

Unfortunately for some unfathomable reason they also believe it is "liberal" to worship the EU and hate America...

In terms of my MP, I voted Lib Dem and got Tory. I live in such a Tory safe seat that it was pretty pointless hoping for anything different anyway.

I don't regret how I voted. I'm a liberal at heart and feel pleased that the Lib Dems might have a chance to influence what the Conservatives do now.

The Orange Book (which is excellent - have you read it?) included chapters by Steve Webb - not normally considered a right-wing ideologue! - Vince Cable, Huhne and many others. Vince's chapter is on liberal economics and social justice and is pretty reflective of current consensus in the Lib Dems.

Clegg's chapter on the EU is also a pretty accurate reflection of the Lib Dem attitude to the EU, which is hardly uncritical worship (and as for "hate America", wtf? ). On the EU, it's basically - more reform, greater accountability, repatriation of some powers to states but pooling of others (this was pre-Lisbon).

David Laws' chapter on health - which basically says "we should be looking at European social insurance solutions, while learning from their problems" - is the best, though. I don't think this current package of health reforms is what we really need.

p.s. Vince Cable has also always been pretty critical of some EU policy (in particular the CAP and the Stability Pact), and that has made itself felt within the party.

This is Vince Cable on public services (from the Orange Book):

"...experience with the private sector in outsourcing, PFI/PPP contracts and management contracts... is very mixed... But these experiences are arguments for getting better value for taxpayers' money... rather than surrendering to the idea that a public service involves a monopoly of public sector provision. The vision should be one in which a mixture of public sector, private and mutually-owned enterprises compete to provide mainstream services."

I voted Labour so yes but we ended up with a Tory MP.
I work for the public sector and now have a very high possibility of losing my job in the near future. Not good when I have mortgage and kids to provide for!! I am fully aware that cuts have to be made and labour were overspending but it seems Lib dems/Conservatives seem to be taking money off those who are most vulnerable.

When the public sector jobs cuts happen, yes I am worried about my job but mostly I fear people will not receive the care/support they need. This will result in unnessary suffering for vulnerable people who need daily care. Those who are often not strong enough to demand care or make their needs known!!

I voted lib dem and am happy - would vote for them again. I like that the coalition are actually DOING something rather than the labour method of government which seemed to be 'debate at length, bitch about it in public, vote for it, then throw vast sums of money at it'.

vesela I've read parts of the Orange Book but not all of it. Will do so one day but I have a mountain of books waiting to be read!

I think people wouldn't mind the EU if it did what it was meant to - a free market, with free movement of goods and labour. The fact that it is first and foremost a political construct rather than an economic one will always hamper it though.

I think it's first and foremost an economic construct.