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Posts Tagged ‘Liberal Democrats’

For all the fuss, I suspect that the outcome of the General Election will still be a Cameron Government, the situation is rather more like the vote in Northern Ireland yesterday over Policing and Justice. For all the fuss made by the Unionists, interventions by George Bush and so forth, the vote got a substantial majority as it had to.

Sure there are doubts, quite serious ones: For Sinn Fein, they needed Policing and Justice to be “local” to undermine the “British Rule” slur put out by dissident Republicans to justify illegal behaviour. The Unionists understood that but doubted whether it would undermine the ‘die-hard’ elements… but really there was little choice in the matter, for good or ill, it was an inevitable step forward albeit it, into the darkness.

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I know that the Independent along with most papers in ‘Fleet Street’ is suffering financial problems since the “paid for by advertising” business model they all relied upon collapsed and to be honest, is not likely to return in the future but, that is no excuse to continue being stupid.

Although it is really a bit of a dead duck, in their main editorial today, Sunday, they return to the Lord Ashcroft story again. The last time they did this, some 90% of the people who wrote in dismissed the story as just Labour Party election campaigning and so on.

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Sometimes it might be better not to write some Editorials and a prime example was this one in the Independent today on Lord Ashcroft funding and directing the Tory campaign in over 100 key marginal seats. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-how-money-can-distort–the-democratic-process-1912359.html

The whole Lord Ashcroft thing is rather boring in the sense that the Law bans foreign nationals from funding British Politics for obvious reasons but a British national who arranges his affairs to minimise tax is hardly the same case. Also one might question the Labour Party’s acceptance of the support of Rupert Murdoch and the Sun Newspaper, he is now an American citizen and before that, Australian. Some people do not only write total crap, they obviously think it too.

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Every now and then on the various comments boards, people will put forward the notion that a Hung Parliament would be a “Good Idea” but my view is that is the very last thing the Country needs right now. Whilst any specific cash value placed on just how much extra interest would be paid on British Government Debt should there be one, there would most certainly be a heavy cost which could arrive in various forms.

There are a number of factors at play here and I would like to map them out as my “argument” against a Hung Parliament starting with the Financial issues which lead directly to the ‘Political’.

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Some days ago we learned that the three main political parties – Conservatives, Labour, LibDems, have agreed to hold TV Debates during the run up to the General Election which of course has immediately led to protest from the various Celtic Nationalist Parties as well as UKIP and presumably, the BNP.

The real question though is whether it adds anything to British Politics or is it just something that excites the ‘Media People’ only. I must be honest and say that my viewpoint starts with a healthy dose of total scepticism. I am sure the first one will be watched by many though even then, only the committed and/or angry and the following ones by very few.

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I often comment via the readers pages to articles in the Press and likely these often motivate to expand my thinking on any particular topic in this blog and particularly when you have ‘companions’ who although they may have different political views, share a common interest in looking for current answers or solutions.

One such person who I met via the Independent is called John and we were discussing an article by Andrew Grice last Saturday when he posed some interesting questions, this blog entry is an attempt to answer those: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/andrew-grice/andrew-grice-bad-case-of-jitters-on-tory-bandwagon-provides-a-test-of-nerve-for-cameron-1838772.html

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This is a deathly combination, a newspaper, The Independent fighting for survival and a political party, the LibDems knowing that they haven’t made the progress that they should have over the past 12-18 months, joining in a campaign of “Parliamentary Reform.

The Editorial and links to associated articles including Mr Clegg’s can be found here- http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-a-powerful-case-to-answer-on-the-restoration-of-power-1821274.html

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Today in the main Leader in the Independent, they decided to extol the virtues of the Liberal Democratic Party as the only one who could be trusted over the EU. It was both a sad and pathetic statement, on a par with Gordon Brown’s “Getting on with the job…” statements. Just how disconnected from reality can the Fleet St.  “chattering classes” become one asks ?

‘Only the Liberal Democrats have consistently put the case for Europe…’ Would be a great statement if even remotely true which it is not. What persuasive case has Clegg and his minions presented to the British electorate on the EU ? What personal benefits or even national benefits have been presented to us by them ? The answer is none at all and likely because there are none, the EU is just another Magic Suit of Clothes.

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I suppose I should subtitle this: “Gordon Falls into his own Elephant Trap”. The story of a Government defeat in the Commons yesterday over the status of former pre-1997 Gurkha soldier’s rights to settle in the UK is an interesting lesson to all politicians. In a way I suppose it is similar to the old saying of actors about never working with animals and children, they will always upstage you !

It was though a total and utter disaster for Gordon Brown and just incredible that he didn’t see it coming and was even stupid enough to get in a slanging match with Nick Clegg that he lost at Prime Minister’s Questions, only Brown could make Clegg look so good !

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Vince Cable wrote an interesting article in Friday’s Independent, the most interesting part of it was the last paragraph:

“Unless he (Cameron), tells us what the Tories would cut he is no more credible than the government front bench. Labour seem to have given up – so now it’s up to the Liberal Democrats to take on the Tories and expose their subterfuge.”

However laid bare, is the fundamental flaw and fantasy at the heart of the Libdems that has been there for as long as I can remember and when they were called the Liberal Party, they just don’t cut the mustard and don’t have broad voter appeal.

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