Liberal Democrat voters thread

[Madsometimes]

Who do you think that Clegg should go in with?

It is obvious that Labour and Tory voters each have their own ideas, but if you voted Lib Dem on May 6th, what do you think?

I must admit that Michael Gove is the very politician that dh and I disagree about-he is for and I am against-very much against

I think the Tory years have acquired mythical status amongst die hard Labour voters. It's just the received opinion now that everything about those 18 years was bad. Anything that went wrong for anyone in those 18 years gets blamed on the Tory government. But that can't have been true can it? Labour needs fewer votes than the Tories to get into power. If people had wanted them out back then, they'd have voted them out easily.

In 1979 when Thatcher came to power unemployment was 720,000, by 1981 it was 3mn. Three recessions. We still deal with the fall out of her extremism today.

Mind you she only killed 1000 people in her war...

True. And their share of vote actually grew under Maggie Thatcher who is regarded with about as much respect as satan these days.

Increasing unemployment was the price paid for getting inflation under control.

That's good news Heathen. I voted Lib Dem for change. I was seriously starting to doubt it would happen and if they had gone with Labour I would have been furious.

gaelicsheep I agree with you but I am probably in a minority here!!

My grandad is 92 and an ex miner from south shields-he voted Tory for the first time in his whole life as he was so disillusioned with Labour.

That says it all for me.

I think a lib con coalition is the the only sensible solution. Like lots of others here, heart says lib-lab (I tend to vote for either or, depending on the constiuency situation) but the mandate is for a lib con government. I find the idea of a conservative government tempered by lib dems much more palitable that a sole conservative government.

I also think that having the government formed only after detailed policy discussions have taken place is a good thing. A hung parliamnet means that politicians need to work together and reach compromises, that should make for better decisions. Personally I find the prospect of a coalition government quite exciting. I haven't been this interested in politics since 1997!

Crazycatlady, the economic policies the Tories tried out in the early 80s were pretty new and untested, and they didn't fully understand the impact they'd have. And then they were pretty stubborn when things started going haywire, and they didn't ease off. (I will say they were right to take on the unions, though).

(someone with a slightly more nuanced idea of economics can put me right!)

David Laws looks knackered.

Nah, Crazycat - nothing to do with wealth and priveledge, more to do with, Christ, where will I start, the closing down of all our industries, miners' strikes, privatisation of the rail network, any other national company you can think of,killing off all our exports, building on kids play parks, cancelling funding for kids clubs and extra curricular activities, 3 day weeks at schools while the teachers were on strike, the Poll Tax, YTS, and most importantly creating a mortgage and loan system where TWO incomes were allowed to get a mortgage, which forced all the prices up and for which we are still suffering - to have a mortgage now, as we all know, usually required TWO incomes, which means that BOTH parents have to work if you have children, which means more children in child care (if you can afford it) and in lots of cases, parents working several jobs to make ends meet while children are left to get on with it and older ones are on the street. Because they can't go to community centres, because most of them all closed during Tory rule.

Like I said, don't get me started.

Oh yes vesela, the lady's not for turning and all that...!

Massive upheaval and a trying time for many families, but then why did she become the first PM ever to be elected into a third term in 1987? I would have thought if the Tories were so terrible they would have been ousted? But they went on to govern for a further ten years.

they should go with cons, they've got alot in common, many of the lib dem policies although seem reasonable on the surface actually are far too simplistic and will result in elitist and divisive measures that benefit the few and mainly the rich . for example - their proposal to scrap tuition fees for students, (popular with young people who have had poor turnout in past election ) - under labour more people than ever now go to university, there are more vocational courses, routes to employment, many courses are more condensed and better value for money than previously. However, if the lib dems scrapped tuition fees then universities would not be able to offer so many courses, places, they would end up being extremely selective and therefore elitist, just when this country was getting away from academic excellence being the be all and end all and education being for everybody, the lib dems and their new mates will put us right back there.

lib dems think everyone should be able to choose the school they want, in my area they plan to do this by bulging class sizes in the most popular schools, - couple that with tory cuts(backed by nick) and you will create over burdened schools and sink schools (and if you don't like it start your own!)

I think Nick is an absolute nuisance, if he wanted celebrity so much he should have gone on Dancing with Stars (at least he might have seen Obama)
Anyway Dave will soon get that nasty and thoroughly repressed (from boarding school?) to give him a good kicking.

Can't wait to see them laughing and joking together over which shade of ju'just for men' hair dye they use.

Unfortunately we lost the leader with honesty, integrity and intelligence

Back in the day my parents were in the SDP. This was a party started by dis-satisfied Labour politicians. They were not dis-satisfied enough to join the Tories though.

I actually canvassed for the Lib Dems this time as we have an active local party. My dad also stood for council. I understand why they did it - kind of. But actually sobbed when Dave became PM.

Hopefully they will be able to reign in the Tories. But I think they should have let the Tories run as a minority and then there would have been another election in the next year. Anything would be better than this.

Probably going to cross post with you Crazy cat, but the reason she kept getting voted back in was because she pandered to the South East of England where there is a heavy majority of the British population and used the northerners and the Scots as her guinea pigs. That's why if you look at the Scottish political map, there are still harly any (if any) Tory seats today.

Crazycatlady - Thatcher went when i was 14 I think, my opinion of Tories more influenced by John Major's government. Quick brainstorm: Michael Howard. Anne Widdecombe. John Redwood. Women giving birth in chains. Family fucking values! Section 28. Cash for questions. Black Wednesday. The Eurosceptic 'bastards' . jonathan Aitken.
Hmm, I see a pattern emerging here; Major himself seemed a decent enough bloke, but his party were a rampaging bunch of lunatics.

That's 'hardly'. Not 'harly'. Am not drunk. Wish I was tho after tonight...

This is what I'd have voted for had it been an option. But not with George Osborne - rather have Vince Cable as Chancellor and George Osborne as the bloke who works in the canteen. But other than that I'm delighted by this outcome. Voted Labour in the past but it will be a long time before I'd do that again. I thought Gordon's speech was excellent though, like Sarah B's smile as he mentioned hated all the pomp and circumstance. They almost skipped away to Scotland - what a huge relief for them as a family.

Crazycat, I think it was because those who were affected, were affected badly, and those who weren't, weren't. Maybe it was only when the widely-used public services started to show the strain that the worm turned. And society started to turn more against her brand of values. Tory voters were still very scared of Labour, and the third-party alternative was only just working out how to target its efforts in certain places and build up a power base.

I'd forgotten "The lady's not for turning!"

Women giving birth in chains?

It could be argued that the Labour track record since 1997 is no better, but I don't see the same level of hatred?

• Iraq war
• 10p tax
• listening to the banks when they said they didn't need close regulation
• greatest level of public debt ever
• schools at breaking point in densely populated areas
• tax raid on British pension funds
• lax approach to immigration
• sleaze/expenses scandal

That makes sense vesela

I do think though that the boo-ing when Cameron was giving his speech was a little uncalled for.

Off to bed, papers tomorrow will be interesting!

Tories invented Sleaze. Am actually really really exhausted so am off to bed, but let's just hope that the next four years are better. Night y'all.

crazycatlady - that might have come out wrong, it wasn't standard NHS policy . It was female prisoners going in to give birth, being chained to the bed throughout.
I mean, it's not, y'know, 3m unemployed or whatever but it was kind of symptomatic of the prevailing attitude.

I voted for John Major in 1997 - the only time I've voted Tory. I was abroad and there were a lot of things I didn't see, or turned a blind eye to (I was voting purely on economic issues as I remember).

Crazycatlady

Don't forget PFI in your labour track record.

I think the privatisation stuff was the worst thing of the thatcher years. She hated trains and allowed the railways to be run down and poured money into road building instead.

She also didn't listen to anyone. It was nice to have a woman in number 10 though. I hope we will see a few women in this cabinet..none mentioned yet.