Why do people think that the lib dems ''sit on the fence?''

[dunceinlove]

I've been reading their manifesto and many of their policies are quite radical and definately do not involve fence sitting e.g; scrapping Trident, improving infrastructure and splitting banks. I like.

According to the Political Compass, they sit further to the left than labour at the moment.

Because of this attitude that you are either labour or conservative. Left wing or right wing.

The 2 main parties. and the only 2 'proper' parties.

And if you are neither it's because you can't make up your mind. Are you left or are you right?

Silly, isn't it?

It's silly, isn't it? They are, in so many ways, very radical...

There was a long-standing running gag on spitting image where David and David (oooh oooh hurt me David ) couldn't decide what policies to have and always came down "Somewhere In The Middle" - that was the catchphrase.

I think it's stuck....

The Lib dems are liberal, not socialist, and liberal rather than conservative. They aim to have policies that are both radical and sensible. As you say, it's got nothing to do with fence-sitting, because they don't exist to prop up other parties.

As Chris Huhne (and others) are fond of saying: The clue's in the name...

"The 2 main parties. and the only 2 'proper' parties."

Indeed. It's about time the BBC R4 'comedy' people give up on the jokes about Clegg "who's he" (because if they do continue, they may be challenged on bias).

One refreshing aspect is that rather than just try to deflect any question into 'how I can I bad-mouth the party' which seems to arise whenever candidates are asked a question, the Lib Dems will more often admit mistakes or modify policy and be open about it (such as the change with the "mansion tax" so it would apply as a percentage of the value in excess of 2 million compared with the 1 million first mentioned)

There's a very important question that they sit on the fence about almost as a matter of course and that's the one about which of the main parties they would support given a hung parliament. They are reluctant to admit which they would prefer to throw their lot in with because they do not want to be tarred with anyone else's brush. The answer 'we will manage it on an issue by issue basis' means we will end up with a system like Belgium.... no continuity and costant squabbles about who is in charge.

Sitting on Fence.They can't get off it!, they have been out of power 100 years.