Ex Lib Dem Voters/Supporters - where are you going and why?

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Reply 20

shahbaz

I'm voting green, its the most proggresive party in my opinion.

Reply 21

Ziggy Sawdust

Original post by chrisawhitmore

Just a few points to address there. On HoL reform, they really did try, but were overruled by conservatives. They couldn't have done more than they did on that (they went so far as to block boundary reform to try and push the tories into doing it).

On protecting the NHS: it's been pretty much entirely ring-fenced and is performing better on most targets (except in Wales, where Labour run it.

On police on the streets: there's a key misunderstanding which is the idea that police total=police on the beat. They've attempted to move as much paperwork as possible away from police officers and to clerical staff, which has allowed a reduction in police numbers while maintaining front line policing. In much the same way that you wouldn't pay a professional footballer to clean the changing rooms, there's no need to employ a policeman to do most of the paperwork.

Having read a little more on the details, I'm willing to concede that a reasonable effort was made by the Lib Dems to push through House of Lords reform.

On the NHS however, I've no idea how you've come to the conclusion that it's "entirely ring fenced". £20 billion of worth of cuts, 34 A&E closures/potential closures, 7000 nurse redundacies, 98 possible GP surgery closures and part-privitisation doesn't look much like a ring fenced department to me. The Lib Dems vowed to protect the NHS, something that, in my opinion, they've spectacularly failed to do.

It's a similar story with policing. The Lib Dems promised to increase the number of police on the streets by 3000, instead we've seen a 20% cut in the police budget and 15000 police redundacies. Yes, a lot of these job loses were clerical staff, but not all of them were/will be:

"The Home Office figures also show sharp falls in the number of police community support officers, civilian staff and special constables. Police civilian staff numbers have fallen by 3,406 over the past year to 65,992 – down from 79,596 in March 2010.

The fall in police numbers is running ahead of estimates by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary that the frontloaded 20% cut in police funding over four years could lead to the total loss of 28,400 police jobs, including 8,100 frontline posts, by 2015."

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jan/31/number-police-officers-drops-lowest

Reply 22

andrew2209

Original post by Dez

Why would there be another* election? What would be the point, even? Not like the result is going to change very much. It seems very unlikely to me that that would've happened simply because the Tories were stuck with a minority government.

* (other than the one in 2015 obviously)

If all of the opposition parties voted against the government in a vote of no confidence, then there would be another election. Even without a vote of no confidence, simply voting against the government to prevent any laws being passed would probably lead to another election anyway.

Reply 23

Quady

Original post by andrew2209

How come?

If all the opposition parties voted no confidence, the government would win the vote...

And the Govt has lost a few votes and been fine.

Reply 24

ChaoticButterfly

The one's who left are most likely the lefter leaning ones. So either Labour or Green.

Reply 25

James222

Im going Labour... Whilst I disagree with their policy on the EU. The tories have lurched to the right and unthinkable what they will do as a majority.

Cant trust clegg or lib dems they lied on tution fees Vat,syria war ,libya war and Vince Cable messed up royal mail sale and watered down workers rights so you now have to work 2 years before you have any rights