[Kreuzberger]

As I see it, the Lib Dems problem isn't so much the coalition hangover now as the fact that they've lost their role as the natural party of protest to the Greens/PC/SNP on one side and whatever Farage comes up with next (I know, but the electorate aren't necessarily the brightest) on the other.

A slam-dunk reason to have voted for Layla Moran. Not exactly AOC but she might yet have energised a fresh and politically homeless base that is there for the taking.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

That's pretty much what I was hoping for. That and an understanding with Starmer.

[Tubby Isaacs]

As I see it, the Lib Dems problem isn't so much the coalition hangover now as the fact that they've lost their role as the natural party of protest to the Greens/PC/SNP on one side and whatever Farage comes up with next (I know, but the electorate aren't necessarily the brightest) on the other.

Yeah, I think there's too much competition for "none of the above" now, and that having been in the Coalition till only 5 years ago is extra disqualifying.

They're where they were early nineties. Not very many MPs, trying to build on local government strength and tactical voting, except without all the morale-boosting by elections. Don't see any way back except hoping Johnson becomes very unpopular with Hard Brexit.

[Catkins]

A slam-dunk reason to have voted for Layla Moran. Not exactly AOC but she might yet have energised a fresh and politically homeless base that is there for the taking.

She came across as a bit flaky and her 2013 arrest for domestic violence (which she later admitted) would have been poison. The press would have (rightly) made a big deal of it at election time, same as if Keir Starmer had given Mrs Starmer a bit of a drunken slapping.

So Davey is Tory-lite? Well, that's the Lib Dems, as we saw in coalition. It's an honest appointment if nothing else.

[davidjay]

A slam-dunk reason to have voted for Layla Moran. Not exactly AOC but she might yet have energised a fresh and politically homeless base that is there for the taking.

She came across as a bit flaky and her 2013 arrest for domestic violence (which she later admitted) would have been poison. The press would have (rightly) made a big deal of it at election time, same as if Keir Starmer had given Mrs Starmer a bit of a drunken slapping.

So Davey is Tory-lite? Well, that's the Lib Dems, as we saw in coalition. It's an honest appointment if nothing else.

It is odd how, as we saw in 2010, their voters are perennially angered by a centre-right leadership, operating on a centre-right manifesto, gravitating to the Tories.

[Tubby Isaacs]

On 2% in Wales.

[Arrowhead]

On 2% in Wales.

It's been all downhill once the mighty statesman Lembit Öpik lost his Montgomeryshire seat.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Lib Dems have a candidate for London Mayor again. Luisa Porritt. Though it might as well be Derek Hatton or Ted Knight given her misplaced sense of what local government can achieve in fights against central government. And like Bailey, she seems to think problems with Crossrail are the mayor's fault. Yeah, get down those tunnels, Khan!

[Catkins]

She was literally the only Mayoral candidate shortlisted after her competitor was sacked for anti-semitism.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Up to 3% in Wales, worse than the Brexit Party. They look completely dead in a "halfway house for sane Tories" way. Amazing that they won the Brecon and Radnor by-election just over 15 months ago.

[Catkins]

[davidjay]

Up to 3% in Wales, worse than the Brexit Party. They look completely dead in a "halfway house for sane Tories" way. Amazing that they won the Brecon and Radnor by-election just over 15 months ago.

Below a party that doesn't exist, in an area where they used to be strong.

[youngian]

Liberal Democrats has a different connotation in the US where they're seen as lefties but are centre-right in British terms. Whereas the Liberal Democrats...

[The Weeping Angel]

Well the Lib Dems havw always had their share of cranks in the ranks.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... dApp_Other

Bath, I hear you say. A university, in fact, two-university city, whose Georgian crescents and Roman baths make it not only a Unesco world heritage site but home to members of the educated middle classes. And the Liberal Democrats? Not the Somerset branch of Britain First or the Brexit party or the Piers Corbyn wing of New Age leftism, but politicians we assumed were pro-Enlightenment centrists the last time we looked?

The very same. Bath is home to a group campaigning to stop the mobile network operator EE upgrading a mast on the edge of the city so it can deliver 5G signals. Its Facebook page “Stop Bath 5G” talks of a “clear danger to health and wildlife” and of wifi causing arthritis in children and breast cancers in women. It’s bullshit: the maximum levels of electromagnetic radiation measured by Ofcom were about 66 times smaller than the safety limits set by international guidelines. But it is bullshit that has conquered the world since Covid-19 appeared in China.

The misinformation pandemic has matched the viral pandemic. Tens of millions have watched Facebook videos claiming that the virus had its origins in a 5G rollout in Wuhan. Propagated by celebrities and sports stars, the story has changed with Darwinian efficiency as it sought the mutations that would maximise its chances of reproduction. In one version, 5G masts increased the lethalness of infections. In another, the official narrative that Covid-19 even exists was a lie, “to hide the fact that people are dying from the 5G frequency”. Attacks on phone masts followed. About 60 were targeted in the UK in the most widespread outbreak of political violence 2020 brought us.

[Boiler]

I think there's something in the water in that part of the country, I really do. Ask any heritage railway enthusiast about the machinations of the West Somerset Railway.

Seriously, people who bang on about 5G need beating with a haddock. And I'll wager quite a few of them have phones that support it too; I'd just love to see their faces when the little status bar in the screen says "5G" next to the signal strength indicator