The Lib Dems can be safely ignored and marginalised

[longfingernails]

Now is the time for Cameron to push through a series of common sense policies which Lib Dems abhor.

Cut unskilled immigration to zero. Referendum on Britain leaving the ECHR. Cut petrol tax and Lib Dem "green" energy taxes which lead to high fuel bills. All windfarms subject to local referendum. All taxpayers to receive shares in the natioanalised banks. All paid for by cutting foreign aid and slashing the per household benefits cap to £15k a year.

At the first sign of Lib Dem moaning - remind them that the PM can still (effectively) call the election. The Lib Dems are due for slaughter as it is. Just imagine how much higher the electoral price they would pay if they brought down a government on any of the issues above!

Cameron and Osborne aren't unpopular because they're toffs. They're unpopular because they're pursuing policies designed to win approval with the Guardian.

It's high time they stopped pandering to Polly Toynbee/Mumsnet, and start listening to Worcester Woman and Mondeo Man again.

Well, if they are trying to win the approval of Mumsnet they have gone about it very oddly.

I see what the OP means, in a way. It might be a case of half a loaf being worse than none; they haven't really rolled back the state, nor have they aimed at let alone achieved social justice. So they have really not pleased anybody...

@ Narked Puffin, I have just fallen off me chair laughing. That has made my day.

I find it very disappointing that Nick Clegg hasn't been more forceful and aggressive in pushing through Liberal Democrat policies as far as his Coalition role goes. He seems to be so grateful to David and Gideon for getting the Lib Dems into government that he just agrees with and backs up the Conservative ideas, even though they are completely at odds with what you'd expect from Lib Dem values.
It would have been satisfying to see him take a far more active leadership role, given that his party had the power to choose who would form the Coalition government at the last election: rather than the OP premise that Cameron should threaten to withdraw from the Coalition, I would like to see this approach used by the Lib Dems because they've been used as scapegoats for bad election results that can only be attributed to the Conservatives' horrendous mismanagement of power so far (eg cuts for everyone including the rich - they get their tax cut).
Off topic - if I hear one more Conservative minister talk about the deficit the last government left, I will chew my arm off. In the past 2 years borrowing has increased by around £125 billion with absolutely no benefit to the economy, particularly unemployment, which is at its highest level since the last Tory government was in power.

I think Cameron is def gonna call an election now whilst behind in the polls.

The local election seat gains were better for Labour than the Tories were saying they were going to be.

The Lib Dem seats in close contest with the Tories are safer than the ones where the Lib Dems are fighting Labour, so any drop in LD popularity is actually likely to benefit Labour right now.

Look at the areas where the LDs held or made gains in this LE - in the south. They lost seats in the North - to Labour.

The Lib Dems have sold their integrity for the sake of a referendum on PR, which was subsequently manipulated by the other parties who have a vested interest in the status quo. What other material difference have they made to the meaningful policies of the coalition? The only other side effect of them being in a coalition is that they can feel important for once. They have played this very, very badly.

Clegg, the architect of all this, is completely marginalised and irrelevent, despised by his own party and the Tories alike. If you watch Clegg during PM question time, he looks either like he is about to burst into tears or is about to punch someone. But you made your own bed Cleggy! I will raise a glass when the good people of Sheffield boot him out next time round, the sooner the better. What a disaster for progressive politics in the Uk.

The Lib Dems were never about progressive politics. For decades they had the luxury of promising the earth and getting worked up about very niche concerns, knowing they'd never be called upon to keep those promises. They largely scored at local level because they'd never been in power... they were the go-to party for anyone dissatisfied with the government but not so hacked off to vote for the opposition.

Having said all that they should not be ignored or marginalised. They are part of the Coalition and, like it or not, the Conservatives did not get the mandate to run the country solo.

Ha, ha at the idea of purer Tory policies being more popular. The LibDems are hugely unpopular because they are not seen as having had any effect in holding back the worst excesses of Tory ideology - eg on NHS reforms. Instead, they are wittering on about things that are of little significance in the minds of the majority of people, making themselves look totally self-serving and irrelevant. If the Tories start getting more aggressive in trying to push through their pure, unadulterated philopsophy (when they are already seen as getting their way on anything of any importance, anyway) they will just make themselves even more unpopular for being nasty and bullying when they never had a majority to entitle themselves to behave in that way, anyway, and if recent local elections are anything to go by have even less of a right to behave like that now than before, and might just get the LibDems to start fighting back on things that actually are relevant. The result of that would merely be delays in anything getting done or agreed, so wouldn't help the country in the long run.

I agree with your assessment. They have always talked a good talk - all the while knowing that they would never have to make a difficult decision.

From the outside it looks like a spectacular own goal for them - can you name a meaningful coalition policy that has LibDem written on it? The small concessions that they are getting are irrelevent to the vast majority.

Which, in conclusion, means that the Tories doing badly in the recent local elections really is because they are already too Tory, not because they are being watered down by an irrelevant party that can't stand up to them.

was agreeing with CES.
If any of the three major parties were in power at the moment they would be very unpopular. There is very little between them in terms of economic policy which is hurting a lot of people atm.

The Lib Dems are also hamstrung because, being the party that has championed PR for so many years, they are honour-bound to support the natural outcome i.e. hung parliaments and coalition governments. They seriously ballsed up when making the coalition agreement by caving under the time pressure and agreeing to far too little of their ambitions. But they still hold the balance of power and the worst thing the Conservatives could do right now is pretend they don't exist.

Also I don't think the Tories will want to rock the boat too much before the next revision of constituency boundaries happens.

The current ones work against them - IIRC had the popular vote been reversed between Labour and Tories, Labout would have got an absolute majority of seats.

This thread is hilarious.

Thanks longfingernails for the entertainment.

It's good that the Tory scum are have given up on trying to reform their party. It's good that people are aware that they're the same old nasty party party that they always were, and hopefully they'll never get a majority ever again.

@CogitoErgoSometimes

(the Lib Dems) seriously ballsed up when making the coalition agreement by caving under the time pressure and agreeing to far too little of their ambitions.

But the percentage of manifesto promises they have been able to enact is greater than the percentage of seats that they hold in the Coalition.

So I'd suggest that the opposite is true. Their big problem is not being able to clearly differentiate what areas they push forward on and what areas they get pushed back on.

Oh, and Original Poster :

• the Tories didn't win the last election. What seriously makes you think they could win the next one?

Soooo.... lfn is proving that the Lib Dems are a waste of time, by listing the sort of policies the Tories would have implemented if they had won the election straight out?

That's an interesting debating tactic.

You're not actually a left-wing deep-cover plant, designed to make the Tories look bad, are you? Because that would make a lot of sense.

can't stand Polly Fucking Toynbee. So self-righteous.

The original poster speaks much sense. (PH by the way? )