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Original poster

Lib dems beaten in to 6th in Barnsley

63 replies

2cats2many · 04/03/2011 08:26

The independent candidate even polled more votes than them.

Is this the beginning of the end for the Lib Dems, or do you think they will win back support over the next 4 years?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12643639

OP posts:
ExitPursuedByABear · 04/03/2011 08:30

Personally I think it is the beginning of the end. The Lib Dems were great at coming up with lots of lovely woolly ideas knowing they would never get into power and have to put them into practice. Then suddenly, they get a stab at power, back track on all their beliefs and their support disappears. Feel a bit sorry for Nick Clegg. Had his chance near the top and then killed off his party.

Northernlurker · 04/03/2011 08:41

Yes I think they're totally and completely stuffed.

Rightly so.

WelshCerys · 04/03/2011 10:53

Pity - long ago, I was involved with the party and although national power seemed lights years away, much in the way of local politics was very good. Couldn't the top brass have predicted that a coalition with the Conservatives would soon have the LDs capitulating on just about everything that defined them as LDs?
What is worth it?

meditrina · 04/03/2011 10:55

See also thread "In The News".

unitarian · 04/03/2011 11:00

I predict a split within the Lib Dems before long.

Ponders · 04/03/2011 11:06

Danny Alexander's turn next I reckon

ClaraRenee · 04/03/2011 11:35

Serves them right. Thats what happens when you turn your back on your beliefs for a bit of power. I think its the start of their demise.

GabbyLoggon · 04/03/2011 11:47

To be in a government (if thats what it is) and come 6th in a by-election....must be a first...
Paddy Ashdown was trailed to appear on 5-Live, but did not come on. sort of interesting. cheers.

glasnost · 04/03/2011 12:02

Don't you host that show he was due to appear on Gabby?

glasnost · 04/03/2011 12:08

The Lib Dem's should put this misguided misconceived misnomer of a coalition to bed before they totally self implode. However, I fear they'll prop it up for the unforeseeable as they've nothing else to lose.

If they don't withdraw from the coalition the tories will win singlehandedly the next general elections and be in power for aeons.

And the last to leave the country..........

GabbyLoggon · 04/03/2011 12:32

Glasnost Nicky Campbell and and scouser Shelagh Fogarty, host the prgramme. "Gabby"....the other
Gabby is probably on air now doing the by-election

GabbyLoggon · 04/03/2011 12:34

glasnost

It is difficult to predict an election 4 years ahead But my guess is Vince cable will leave the Coaltion first.. "Gabby"

UnquietDad · 04/03/2011 13:08

Under the current system I don't think it really matters where you come in the seats you aren't going to win. It only matters if you are trying to get up from third to a good second to have a realistic punt at it next time round. Nobody but Labour will ever hold Barnsley Central.

GabbyLoggon · 04/03/2011 13:22

Uniquedad That is almost certainlytrue. Which shows what a divided country we are...because the South will probably still vote tory next time.

Do we need a Northern government? cheers "Gabby"

PS the poor seem to be getting a better deal in Scotland and Wales.

dotnet · 04/03/2011 13:27

I think Nick Clegg has killed his party. But there may be a couple of other possibilities...

  1. I was thinking this morning how the LibDems are now perceived as Conservatives Lite. This despite the fact that, pre-coalition, they were a left-leaning party.

So, perhaps in the future the LibDems will pick up their votes from disenchanted Conservative voters. They've lost all of their Labour/LibDem waverers, that seems certain. Plus, I'm guessing they've deservedly lost 90% of the student vote.

  1. It is just conceivable I suppose that if they can elect a leader who is telly friendly and cuddly and above all, honourable (like Charles Kennedy), - and if that person can convincingly decry the party's recent broken promises - maybe, just maybe, they can scrape their way back into third place.

A LibDem replacement leader would have to be a plain speaker and we'd need him to spell out in words of one syllable that electing Nick Clegg and getting into bed with the Tories was craven and the king of all blunders.

And he'd need to apologise unreservedly to the students for the party's recent betrayal, AND reiterate the pre-election promise to work towards bringing back free higher education (a promise which, in the parliamentary vote, most of the rank and file LibDem MPs actually did not betray.)

glasnost · 04/03/2011 13:28

We know that UnquietDad but it's still heartening to see the unholy alliance getting a "good kicking".

glasnost · 04/03/2011 13:33

I agree dotnet but your scenarios are not gonna happen I'm afraid. They'll stick it out and weather the storm only to expire.

Bet they regret giving cuddly Charlie Kennedy the elbow over spurious booze gossip.

ExitPursuedByABear · 04/03/2011 14:04

I think disenchanted Tories are more likely to vote UKIP than Lib Dem.

smallwhitecat · 04/03/2011 14:06

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Ponders · 04/03/2011 14:14

I think you'll find he took the piss out of the lot of us, swc, not just his constituency.

lubberlich · 04/03/2011 15:44

The LibDems are the enablers of this lousy rotten government. The sooner they are dead in the water the better. I am quite enjoying hearing all of these different LibDem jonnies trying to offload blame on anyone but themselves. Squirming like weasels in a sack.
When you ditch your principles and lie (uni fees) through your teeth as soon as your arse hits the ministerial leather then you deserve a kicking.
Bravo Barnsley.

yelloutloud · 04/03/2011 16:50

Don't all politicians lie? Just those in higher places get away with it for longer. It's a shame about the Lib Dems, the country needs a left leaning party. Labour is soooo pseudo left and the conservatives are sending us back to the Victorian age.However, as we see in North Africa when power goes to your head....eventually it falls down around you. Poor poor Nick Clegg! Unfortunately, the hard working grass root Lib Dems will be left with nothing before he is.

UnquietDad · 04/03/2011 17:45

And if we didn't have the Lib Dems in government we would have....?

(a) A minority government made up entirely of the Conservative Party, which would be worse (and which would possibly have deliberately self-destructed already in order to call a general election and try to win it before all the cuts came in).

(b) A Rainbow Coalition made up of Labour and various other parties (Labour-LibDem alone would not have been sufficient numbers). Pulling in different directions, probably chaos. It would have survived thus far, maybe not implementing as many cuts as the Coalition, but aware that it had to something, and do it soon. The frustrations of the clash of idealism and Realpolitik would soon have seen it flounder.

(c) A minority Labour government with Gordon Brown still in charge? Never going to be an option - would struggle to get anything passed and would inevitably be seen as a "lame duck".

All three of those possibilities above would have resulted in another General Election within a year of the last - sounds great to some people, until you realise the parties can't afford it and don't have the stomach for it.

Given the result as it was (and not as you would have liked it to be), what other realistic options were there?

Paul88 · 04/03/2011 18:17

The Lib Dems, if they had it in them, could have agreed to work with the tories without actually getting in bed with them.

They could have agreed a budget but then used parliament to debate other issues such as NHS changes rather than doing it behind closed doors and coming out of cabinets pretending to be united.

What is parliament for anyway? Why not actually make the policies there instead of it all be party based? Let MPs vote in the interests of their constituents instead of being mere pawns pushed about by party whips.

This is the real lost opportunity and one I am glad to see the lib dems suffering for.

Niceguy2 · 04/03/2011 18:44

The problem with lib-dems is that people expected two things from them.

  1. To implement policies they set out in their manifesto

  2. To keep the Tories in check.

For 1) They ballsed that up royally by not just compromising a bit on tuition fees but doing a complete U turn.

For 2) I suspect, in an attempt to present an united front, they're just appearing like Tory lapdogs.