The Most Pointless Job In Politics Is About To Be Announced......

[ToraToraTora]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53920142
....excited?

[ichkeria]

No one cares I know or probably even noticed, but I meant FPTP

I hated the LibDems at the time, but they did the right thing in 2010.
It wasn’t just their own supporters who hung then out to dry tho.
Mind you people still bang in about tuition fees. Sometimes you have to move on. The end of the Brexit argument and the apparent demise of Corbynism are not good electorally for Ed. But there’s always team Boris to pin his hopes on :-)

[Spicerack]

+ a water filled ditch around a northern castle.

[ToraToraTora]

yes, YMB, Clegg and co were treated appalling that's because they realised that they had got as close to the levers of power than they ever thought possible and as such had to work with their coalition partners. To root and branch Lib non dems that is heresy, the Tories are the enemy, more so than Labour, thus gaining a sniff of power had in effect snuffed out most of their MPs. From their point of view they probably should not have joined the Tories in 2010 at all. They could have forced a minority government with a sort of friends with benefits approach, or possibly just waited for the inevitable election rerun. Tough for Cleggy and I think his party were harsh.

[jim360]

For the record, I genuinely didn't care about the Tuition fee saga, even at the time. It's still a part of the narrative, though. The LibDems should never have made a pledge that they couldn't keep; it only made sense if they were expecting not to be in office, when they would of course have been free to vote against something that would have been forced through regardless.

As a side note, what is happening on this thread?

[ToraToraTora]

Jim: " it only made sense if they were expecting not to be in office" - you can promise anything when you know you are never going to have to deliver!

[Jackdaw33]

...and then there were two.

[Spicerack]

I'll miss you, gromit. For a lefty, you spoke a lot of sense. (on some subjects)

[ichkeria]

" it only made sense if they were expecting not to be in office" - you can promise anything when you know you are never going to have to deliver!"

Ironically, the exact opposite happened in 2019. A promise was made they thought they COULD deliver, namely cancelling Brexit. But while that might have made sense if there was a realisitic chance of winning the election, it became apparent that that was nowhere near happening then they got stuck with it.

[Jackdaw33]

Any political party which wants to be taken seriously does not send its representatives to Brussels wearing yellow T-shirts proclaiming 'B******* to Brexit'. Any shred of credibility they may have had was lost at that point.

[ToraToraTora]

ich:"A promise was made they thought they COULD deliver, namely cancelling Brexit. " - yes and had they won the election they could legitimately have argued that the public had in fact changed their minds on that. Sadly for them they got their Aprils kicked as badly as Agent Cob and the reds.

[ladybirder]

What a mess of a thread. Was it really necessary to remove six posts on page one?

[ToraToraTora]

dunno what was in them LB, probably a load of rudeness from the LibFacs.

[jim360]

I can see why you'd react that way, but, honestly, I think the people it annoyed were those who weren't going to vote LibDem anyway. What put people off voting LibDem in 2019, as far as I could see, was a sense that only Labour could defeat the Tories -- a message that Labour decided they were perfectly happy to promote.

[ToraToraTora]

the problem is Jim, that the public only occasionally trust Labour and they must have a charismatic leader which is why only 4 Labour leaders in history have ever won an election and one of them was Tory Lite Tony. They were never going to elect a pro terrorist, anti Semitic, anti British, Marxist to the top job.

[ichkeria]

"What put people off voting LibDem in 2019, as far as I could see, was a sense that only Labour could defeat the Tories"

I'm not sure about that: the LibDems failed in many places where they were poised to zap the Tory candidate and Labour were irrelevant.
I suspect they did badly in those places because people in fact thought voting Lib Dem would let Labour in.

[naomi24]

//What put people off voting LibDem in 2019, as far as I could see, was a sense that only Labour could defeat the Tories//

If I were ever to consider voting LibDem that^ wouldn't have stopped me - but their clear disdain for the electorate in their blatant disregard for democracy would have. Shameful!

[Spicerack]

One of our most long standing and esteemed members flounces because of the moderation and no-one seems to care. (and him a mod)

[jim360]

I should have added that, yes, but then that reverts to my original point. It's a tragedy of any political system if it entrenches just two plausible choices, and it's suited both Labour and the Tories to squeeze (in England) any other party out of meaningful contention.