That Daniel Radcliffe seems to have turned out to be a thoroughly sensible young chap.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/feb/06/daniel-radcliffe-ends-lib-dem-support?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038

_________________
I'm a nasty, violent lefty. You cunt.

I'll admit to voting Lib Dem at the last election (not that it made any difference, I live in a safe Labour seat) and it's a mistake I won't ever be making again. Tbf there are still some decent people in the Lib Dem grass roots - I have more in common with social liberals than Blairites, for example - but as far as I can see there's bugger all difference between the Lib Dem libertarian wing and hard-right Tories. I know all the major British political parties tend to be 'broad churches' (they have to be because of the electoral system), but the differences between Lib Dem left and right are so vast it makes me wonder why the party still exists. It wouldn't surprise me if, in a few years, the Tories swallow the Lib Dem right like they did with the National Liberals.

But whatever the outcome of the next GE (and a Tory majority is regrettably not beyond the realms of possibility), the prospect of a Lib Dem wipeout gets me all aroused.

_________________
Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.

That was Blair's first failure. His 'Third Way' was an attempt to reunite the Labour Party and the social liberal wing of the Lib Dems after the split c1916. The planning was well advanced, then in 1997 he was much more successful than anticipated, some Labour big beasts turned against it (believing the Lib Dems were dead in the water and no alliance was needed) and Paddy Ashdown was too stupid to see a good thing when it was offered to him. Subsequently the economic liberals came into the ascendancy, Clegg forced Ming out and the rest is history. What is despicable is the way that the economic liberals hid their plans until after the last election.

Absolutely. The Lib Dems cynically positioned themselves on the soft left at the last election to hoover up disaffected Labour voters - and having done so, Clegg subsequently came out a few months later to say the Lib Dems had 'no future' as a party of the left. Now, of course, they just have no future. The duplicity of their election campaign was vile and won't be forgotten in a hurry.

_________________
Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.

They've lost my vote, probably permanently.

Same, although my constituency is safe Labour anyways.

Same again here. And I'd voted LD since before Iraq, so I'm not one of these people who Clegg thought he could safely jettison because we just don't realise that voting LD is more than just a protest vote against Labour.

If there was an election tomorrow, I'd be in a serious quandary. I refuse to vote Tory, I won't vote LD again, and I see no reason to vote Labour other than them not being the other two parties - which doesn't really feel like a reason, tactical voting or not.

And the only other alternative on offer locally is generally the BNP. Who I don't want to dignify by describing them as a party.

_________________
"If the past really is a foreign country, I'm surprised that 'The Daily Mail' would want to live there.” - Roger Quimbly

My situation exactly. I have voted Green before now but that was way back when. These days all parties make noises about the environment and the Greens are a bit of a single issue party, despite their protestations. I like their leader but she is not representative of the party as a whole. I think it will have to be Labour. With a frown.

If I thought Green might be able to get enough support to get into government, I might vote for them. As that's not likely, I'd have to vote labour to get rid of the tories in both their forms...

I'd happily vote Green myself (in fact I did at the last European election) but it would be a waste of time under FPTP - in fact, the Greens didn't even bother fielding a candidate in my constituency last time around. It's unfortunate because they'd take a big chunk out of Labour's left-wing base under a proportional system. Not enough to win them a parliamentary majority, obviously, but potentially enough to make them a force to be reckoned with in a coalition. Lords reform might pave the way for Green gains, but that's only if Clegg doesn't kibosh the whole thing first.

_________________
Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.

Forgive me, but if you follow that logic through to its natural conclusion and sufficient people think the way that you do, then we end up with what we have now - a virulently ideological right-wing Tory government intent on dismantling our NHS for profit and supported by the Lib Dems in attacking the weakest and most vulnerable in society - or (possibly) worse, a similar stripe of Tory government with a working majority.

I think I can hazard a guess as to why you refuse to vote for the Tories. But don't you sense there just might be some sort of duty on you to put a clothes peg on your nose and vote Labour just to spare us that - even if you don't really feel like it?

_________________
I'm a nasty, violent lefty. You cunt.

TBH as I live in a massively safe Tory seat who I vote for is largely irrelevant. I voted for Labour last time not so much because I agreed with them but because it was a tight seat with the Tories pushing to gain it, and it was a case of the least worst option.

_________________
"Even when you're a super-computer with an IQ of 2000 it's brown trousers time."

Reclaiming "methinks" for the nation

Latest blog post - 2011 - a review (updated 07/10)

That's exactly what I did at the last local election, Abernathy - have to resort to tactical voting. And for that reason.

I accept that it's a necessity at this rate - I just don't have to like it.

_________________
"If the past really is a foreign country, I'm surprised that 'The Daily Mail' would want to live there.” - Roger Quimbly

Last election Oliver Letwin's seat was marginal and the Lib Dems were the closest party to him. However, I think he's increased his majority to over 6,000 now. I'd certainly consider their local policies but I'm far more inclined to listen to the Green Party and Labour more.

It's amazing how many young people the Lib Dems have managed to turn apathetic now.

_________________
My blog: https://stevenplrose.wordpress.com/

It's one of the great sad ironies of politics post-Iraq that many voters sympathetic to Labour voted Lib Dem in the belief that they would get a Labour government but could say with a clear conscience that it was nothing to do with them. I'm sure the overwhelming majority assumed before the last election that there would be a Lab-LD coalition. They hadn't noticed that Clegg had dragged the party to the right and would never have countenanced working with anyone but the Tories.