What Are The Lib Non Dems Celebrating?

[ToraToraTora]

https://news.sky.com/story/lib-dems-gear-up-for-celebratory-conference-but-can-they-keep-up-the-momentum-12964909

Apparently their conference is "celebratory"! Ok they won a few by-elections but they are nearly always lost at the following GE.

[naomi24]

Delusions of grandeur.

[gulliver1]

ABspareEd....please can this thread be moved to politics or chatterbank

[naomi24]

Gulliver this is a news item dated today.

[ABSpareEditor]

Gulliver1, no. This category is appropriate. 

[New Judge]

"Delusions of grandeur."

Precisely. The Lib-nonDems have always suffered delusions of grandeur. It started in 1981 when the diminutive David Steel (now Baron Steel of Aikwood), the former leader of the then Liberal Party, roused the troops at the end of his conference speech, telling them to loud applause that they should “...go back to their constituencies and prepare for government.”

They need not have made too much preparation because the following General Election in 1983 saw them win just 23 seats, though it has to be said, with 25% of the popular vote, they came within 700,000 votes of outpolling Michael Foot’s Labour. Their one crack at government came in 2010 when they won 57 seats and formed a Coalition with the Conservatives. 

The price of agreeing to the Coalition was high. There was to be a referendum on the “Alternative Vote” system which was proposed to replace first-past-the-post. This was held as agreed and lost by two to one. There was also an agreement to revise the average size of Parliamentary Constituencies but the Lib-nonDems reneged on that following their defeat in the voting referendum. There was also passed the “Fixed Term Parliament Act” which was primarily framed to guarantee Nick Clegg the spare keys to No.10 for a minimum term of five years. This proved not to be worth the paper it was written on and was repealed by the Johnson government.

The country soon realised what a disaster that allowing LibDems anywhere near power was and in 2015 their number of seats reduced to just eight. They have scarcely done any better since then with just 12 and 11 seats won in the two most recent GEs.

They are really what is known in the boxing world as a “nuisance”. That is used to describe an opponent that has no realistic prospect of success but who can cause problems for the favourite, who has to overcome them to secure victory before he can press on to the next opponent in his quest to become World Champion.
 

[gulliver1]

11.27  lol..

[ToraToraTora]

Trolling the editor now!

[jackthehat]

I wonder which toe-curling stunt Sir Ed will roll out for the Conference?

The seem incapable of realising that they are the benefactors of protest votes rather than the recepients of positive, well-reasoned votes from an engaged electorate.

[tomus42]

Probably celebrating the distinct possibility they are again going to be the power brokers in a hung parliament.

It's not all delusional. They know they can't 'win' but doing well enough to enable this is how they win.

[naomi24]

//Probably celebrating the distinct possibility they are again going to be the power brokers in a hung parliament.//

 

If that's what they're hoping for they've severely limited their field of potential supporters.  I can't see any Brexiteer (and they did make up over 50% of those voting in the referendum) backing a party that clearly doesn't respect democracy and whose official mantra was '*** to Brexit'.  I think they're whistling in the wind.

[Zacs-Master]

Only slightly over 50% at the time, naomi, which means there could well be more than 50% now who agree with their '**** to Brexit' stance. 

[ichkeria]

The factos that affected Lib Dem support in recent years: blame for the coalition's imposition of tuition fees (memory fades), and fatigue with the Brexit saga, now no longer apply.

So while they won't be forming a government, a third factor may also help: namely people may be better disposed to the idea of Labour in govt than before and so therefore if they feel disinclined to vote Labour they'll be less bothered about voting tactically to helping a few extra Lib Dems back to Westminster.

Actually I think I'd be celebrating just a little if I'd had some of those by-election results.

[naomi24]

I think the problem there, ich, is that they got the results for the wrong reasons - but they've yet to cotton on.

[JimF]

"the diminutive David Steel"

Is his physical appearance relevant here?

[ichkeria]

The wrong reasons?

lol I don't anyone will be too bothered about the reasons - that applies to all parties 

[naomi24]

They should he bothered about the reasons because for those very reasons they haven't a hope in hell of ever winning a general election.  They are delusional.

[ichkeria]

I don't think the Lib Dems think they are going to win a general election

[Gromit]

They have only 11 MPs. Very unlikely that they will be kingmakers this time. But they might just double their number in the Commons, so their conferences won't be quite as lonely in future.

Not sure the voting public will support them after they gave up all their principles to join the coalition Government.

 

[ichkeria]

Well, 15 now of course after the by-elections.

As I posted above, the factor of the coalition with the Tories is a bit of an electoral dead duck now.

[Canary42]

////

Is his physical appearance relevant here?////

Apparently to some folk (we saw a reference to Blair's Hair earlier - First response in https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question1850071.html#answer-13657948 ) by Mr Hughes.