Definitely voting Lib Dem

[andrewducker]

Lib Dems will slash ministries says this article. They want to implement fairly radical decentralisation, but back on the bureaucracy and make local government more central to local decisions.

Comments

[allorin.livejournal.com]

Feh - I'm going Tory all the way this time. Anything to remove Labour from power....

[andrewducker]

Aah, yes, the Tories. Who never created wars out of nothing.

They also banned the mention of homosexuality in schools, are anti-EU, were against the removal of the House of Lords, cut spending on the NHS and schools, refused a devolution vote for Scotland and voted against the minimum wage.

To note a few things that Labour have happily done the opposite of.

Labour may not be perfect, but they've done a hell of a lot.

[allorin.livejournal.com]

I didn't say I liked the Tories, I just said I'm voting for change!

[andrewducker]

I'd see all of those things I just listed as darn good reasons to vote Labour.

I'm voting Lib Dem because they're who I'm actually sympathetic towards, but I still see Labour as having done an awful lot for the good of the country.

The only real problems I have with Labour are that I feel they haven't been open about the warm and that they are infavour of PPP (which I view as unproven). Other than that there's precious little I don't side with them over.

[allorin.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm anti-devolution, for a start. I also find that increasingly, I distrust Tony Blair, and would really like him out of office. I'll do whatever it takes to do that.

I really, strong (and I mean this) object to people voting anything other than Labour or Tory in a General Election. IMHO, it's a wasted vote, as the election will only ever be a two-horse race. I simply don't buy that crap about 'making a statement' - nobody remembers how many vote increases Lib Dem got in the last GE, or the one before that. Nobody cares. Certainly, Labour don't care if they get in by a land-slide, or by the skin of their teeth - they just care about getting in. They certainly won't care if a proportion of Labour voters vote Lib Dem to 'make a statement' if Tony Blair is still in number 10 after the GE.

I guess, in honesty, I feel I'd rather have a Labour government, but not this one. I think what's required is that Labour is voted out of power, shaken up by that, and then voted back in next time round - hopefully with a better, more Labour-like policy.

[andrewducker]

it's a wasted vote, as the election will only ever be a two-horse race.

The lib dems have had a rising share for the last 3 elections, the Tories a falling one. If things carry on (and they might), the Lib Dems will replace the Tories in the two horse race.

Not only that, but in tight situations, a third group can throw their weight in and force changes.

Oh, and in the 1980s, the green party got a large minority vote, causing all of the major parties to include green causes in their manifestos.

If my area was a close Labour/Conservative one, I'd be tempted to vote Labour, but if my vote wouldn't cause the Tories to get in, I'll definitely be voting Lib-dem.

Oh, I definitely appreciate your point of view regarding Tony Blair though. His handling of the war has lost him the trust of a lot of people. He's got a year and a half to get it back though. You never know, he might do that.