Lib Dems could form coalition with Tories to unseat Labour

[muriel_volestrangler]

A senior Liberal Democrat says the party will form a coalition with the Tories when Labour loses power.

Vince Cable, the party's treasury spokesman, says the political "pendulum" may not swing in the Tories' favour because Britain now has a three-party system. In a pamphlet published today by the think-tank Demos, Mr Cable says: "It may now be too late for a party of the right - squeezed between 'cultural conservative' and 'libertarian' forces - to re-emerge as an undisputed voice of opposition. If the pendulum swings, it may swing to a combination of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats and, thus, to a period of minority government or coalition, in some form."

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article311049.ece

First the tax, and now this? Is there any difference between Cable and Ken Clarke? It's time he was kicked out of the Lib Dem shadow chancellor position.

[non sociopath skin]

1. Remember you heard it first on Radio Skin .....

:eyes:

The Skin

[Nihil]

2. The "Cats-eyes" party strikes again!

Just when you thought they'd grown some bollocks they go back
to talking it instead ...

[Taxloss]

3. Yellow Tories! I've said this all along! You can't trust the Lib Dems!

They've shown their true colours in local government - they CANNOT be trusted nationally. Or locally, for that matter.

[non sociopath skin]

4. Yes, more in sorrow than in anger, Taxloss.

I felt bad being a party pooper during the General Election when a lot of really good people - Brits and Yanks - sincerely wanted to believe that Charlie's Army was John Kerry, Robin Cook and George Galloway plus.

I've worked with these people. In the Authority on which I served, they were more New Labour than New Labour, more Anti-Socialist than Thatcher.

As Auntie Bella would have said, wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them.

The Skin

[mr blur]

5. Or as my grandad would have said,

"I wouldn't trust any of them any farther than I could spit". All so desperate for some power they'll do just about anything.

[AX10]

6. Then I support the Labour party.

[fedsron2us]

7. More wishful thinking from the Liberal Democrats

When Labour is finally ousted from power it will be the Tory party that replaces them. The way Britsh voting system is currently structured means that any shift of votes to the right will take out quite a lot of Liberal Democrat MPs along with supporters of the current government.

[T_i_B]

8. Will the real Liberal Democrats please stand up?

On the one hand we have this story in today's papers

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1573463,00.html

The Liberal Democrats will today seek to capitalise on their electorally successful anti-war stance with a call for the "end of the occupation" of Iraq.

Kicking off the foreign affairs debate at the Liberal Democrat conference in Blackpool, Sir Menzies Campbell will invoke the spirit of Robin Cook and his "ethical foreign policy" to woo Labour voters disgruntled with the government.

Although Lib Dem policy has so far been to call for a staged withdrawal of British troops coinciding with the end of the UN mandate in December, Sir Menzies will offer no final deadline for the withdrawal of British troops.

Sir Menzies - the elder statesman of the party and a firm favourite with the rank and file - will pay tribute to the leading Labour opponent of the Iraq war, Robin Cook, hailing him as a "man of independent spirit" whose sudden death this summer left British political life "sadly diminished". And he will borrow Mr Cook's famous formulation of "foreign policy with an ethical dimension" to describe the Liberal Democrat approach to global affairs. Sir Menzies' use of it is a clear attempt to persuade voters who backed Labour in previous elections because of their internationalist convictions that their natural home is now with the Lib Dems.

And then we find another very different story in today's Independent. If you ask me I much prefer Richard Allen, Nick Clegg's predecessor as MP for my old stomping ground of Sheffield Hallam.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article313546.ece

The National Health Service should be broken up because its "faults" are too serious to be ignored, a Liberal Democrat MP says.

Nick Clegg, a member of Charles Kennedy's shadow cabinet, claims that public patience with the NHS is "running out". He said in an interview with The Independent that the Liberal Democrats should "break up" the NHS, and stop trying to defend the status quo.

In a controversial intervention, that will infuriate many activists, the Liberal Democrats' foreign affairs spokesman urged the party to abandon "taboos" when talking about reform of the public services. He said the party should not rule out scrapping the centrally controlled NHS and moving to a locally run system or an insurance-based model such as those used on the Continent. "I think breaking up the NHS is exactly what you do need to do to make it a more responsive service. I don't think anything should be ruled out. I do think they deserve to be looked at because frankly the faults of the British health service compared to others still leaves much to be desired."

Mr Clegg, who is regarded as a potential future leader, said he did not want to privatise the health service. But his remarks, on the first day of the party conference in Blackpool, will revive the row over The Orange Book - a collection of essays by leading Liberal Democrats - which infuriated allies of Mr Kennedy when it broached the question of health service reform.

The Liberal Democrats urgently need to work out what on earth they stand for IMHO.

[T_i_B]

9. Tory chairman floats idea of coalition with Lib Dems

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article314266.ece

The Conservatives could form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats if there is a hung parliament after the next election, the Tory chairman Francis Maude, has said.

He told The Independent: "You look round the country and you see a number of councils where Conservatives are in alliance with Lib Dems, Birmingham, for example. There's no great drama about that."

Asked whether there could be a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, he replied: "There's no reason why that should be out of the question If you end up with a hung parliament, there is either a minority government, which is unwieldy, or a coalition. You deal with what the electorate gives you."

Mr Maude insisted, however, that a hung parliament was a "remote" possibility, saying: "We are clearly aiming to win the next election outright. Everything we are doing is directed at that."

[non sociopath skin]

10. When dealing with Libdemmery, I am oft reminded of Groucho's adage ....

"These are my principles. If you don't like them, I have others."

The Skin

[Taxloss]

12. Hear hear.

Bloodnok on "The Goon Show": "I, sir, am a patriot! I'll only betray my country for money!"

The Lib Dems are an enormous confidence trick. I was re-reading some Peter Jenkins the other day - his essays about the founding of the SDP - and it struck me what a pathetic creature the modern Lib Dem is.

[tjwmason]

15. That's absolutely true

As you say in your part of the country they're fervently anti-Labour (where Labour is the largest party), round here the Tories are absolutely dominant - so the LibDems are just as vociferously opposed to them.

They just want to get their hands on power - they're not that bothered how, and they're not necessarily bothered what they do with it once they get it. They just want it.

[sweetheart]

11. that libertarian wind

could unite the tories and the libdems, to end the drugs war, to
end the imperial wars and illegal occupations, to put government
back in to its role of "governing least", instead of this wooly
state spending bubble on the back of a property bubble.

There is a lot to fight about in tory/libdem, but liberty could soon
become the core value of both parties, something that would unite them
very so well. There is not a proper libertarian movement in britain,
and i believe it is just a matter of this natural element finally
manifesting after a long sleep.... demanding that government serve
the sovereign individual, and not the reverse.

[Taxloss]

13. "Liberty" sounds so much nicer than "bare-knuckle capitalism", doesn't it?

It's funny how that "liberty" rarely extends to, say, those fleeing oppression who seek refuge in this country.

[sweetheart]

14. Yes, the old tory grinch-heart

3 sizes too small. Another greater soul-ed conservative might believe
that all persons who set foot on british isles should be enshrined with
liberty worthy of kings and queens. If the social engineer conservatives
like widdecomb shut their stupid gobs and let clarke, rifkind, and that
school to the fore, the coalition with the libdems would keep them a
collar on their unfettered capitalist dog. The internal tensions of
the coalition would be most excellent for the british people.

As much as a labour war government has been a joy, the party's ending.