Voting Reform No Longer Precondition for Lib Dem/Tory Pact?

[Sweeedes]

The Lib Dems are fickle.

If you want to keep Labour in power, for goodness sake vote Labour.

yes, so he will be ousted as leader. But the next leader will see the urgency of solving our defecit problems and eventually convince the party to go along. You know more about the Liberals than me. I remember watching the Politics Show when the BBC surprised Huhne with the publicity that his supporters had printed, which disparaged Clegg. It caught Huhne out and Clegg and the BBC watched Huhne squirm. After that, Huhne was on the back foot and Clegg won the leadership. Huhne had substance and experience in business. He used to be very effective. It is a shame that he isn't playing a bigger role.

deficit

I think Nick Clegg needs to stand by his principles over voting reform. He needs to make clear he will do this otherwise he will lose votes and not be in a bargaining position anyway.

It was interesting to see the tax credits clip at the end of the BBC news last night. Gordon brown has gone on and on saying don't vote lib dem or tory or you'll lose your tax credits. Under the lib dems middle to higher earners will lose their tax credits but gain more from the personal tax exemption threshhold being raised to £10,000. You need to get this message to the voters Nick otherwise people might believe gordons message that they are better off under labour.

Focus on putting lib dem policies across and don't get drawn in to doing deals with the other parties.

''Thanks, MrsCosmopolite! - you linked to Sky again, though... ''

Take 2

the real article from the independent

No leader could ever convince the Lib Dems to "go along" without proportional representation! It couldn't happen. The party is run on extremely democratic lines, it's nothing like Labour or the Conservatives.

Could the Conservatives (although run on less democratic lines) ever be convinced to go along with euro entrance, do you think?

Claig, I'd also like to see Huhne playing a bigger role in the campaign. He does have a smallish majority to defend, though - could be that.

snowlady - I think he's trying...! Not easy when you're under attack from all sides by the media/Tory/Labour establishment, though.

I'm a lifelong LibDem voter who completely distrusts Nick Clegg. Getting into tbed with the Tories is the stuff of nightmares for me.

I'll probably vote Labour this Thurs, for my neighbour.

btw when I said euro entrance, I was just taking that as a hypothetical example of something you'd never be able to convince the Conservative MPs/members to go along with, if for some reason Cameron decided it was the way to go!

Vesela - agree with your point about the media.

Highlander - do you think the Tories would agree to PR?

I think the Conservatives could be convinced to join the Euro. The Euro-sceptics may be convinced if the speculators were to attack the pound, as Soros did when we were in the ERM and when Lamont had to beg Germany for help, which they declined, which meant he had to put interest rates up to 15%. We then left the ERM. But if the markets now lost faith in sterling, we would again be begging for help from the Euro-bloc. The question is would they be able to help us, when Germany has its plate full with Greece and possibly more countries.

oh well, I chose the wrong example then

snowlady - I saw that piece too and wondered why the Lib Dems and Conservaties aren't trumpeting that. GB is lying through his teeth and being allowed to get away with it.