Today I am ashamed of my membership of the Liberal Democrats. Thanks Polly. This recommendation should be trusted more than your ‘Only Gordon Brown can save Labour’ piece because?
Oi Vey.
First the Observer. Now the Guardian. I see an attempt to snap Brown’s arm off behind his back, they’re twisting it so hard. Before Lib Dems get excited by this ‘overtaking Labour in the Polls’ business, this ‘lowest polls for Labour ever’ business, this actual endorsements from something other than Lib Dem Blogs and/or the Independent they need to remember that if Labour and the Lib Dems were both at 18%, Labour would still get 200 seats while the Lib Dems would lose 30 of theirs. One of the reasons Lib Dems tend to develop an eye twitch when the subject of First Pass The Parcel comes up.
And the Guardian… they can’t even spell never mind be trusted to recommend a party to vote for. Ferchrisakes they’ve been saying ‘Vote Labour’ for – I think, give or take a couple of days – FOREVER. Not exactly known for their critical faculties.
The only message Lib Dems should take from the current polling is how much of a crisis it is for Labour being at 18% and to view same polling figures for us as equally catastrophic, rather than, hey, not bad for this point in the cycle. When the Guardian, the Independent, the Times and the Sun say ‘Vote Lib Dem’ then, then, engage smug mode.
Hat tip to the distinctly untraumatised Lib Dem Voice.
Darrell said...
1 Jun 09 at 10:09 pm
You have pretty much hit the nail on the head with your first paragraph really; there is something that strikes me as being insincere about her musings. Personally, i always prefer a sincere opponent to a fickle friend and thats why I tweeted the kiss of death comment…..
Ian B said...
1 Jun 09 at 11:00 pm
I wish 18% of the population were libertarians. It would be nice just if 18% of the population even knew what libertarianism is.
Anyway, Polly says-
Leaving Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy’s mainstream group will make future EU dealings infinitely harder. Why should other countries grant the endless compromises and opt-outs Britain has insisted on? Should those exemptions be refused, it would ignite yet more anti-European virulence.
Without then asking the obvious question of why Britain should be begging for opt outs and having to keep in the good books of all these other “partners” in the first place. Why is it considered hegemonically verboten to not want Britain reduced to a province in a giant new nation? Come to that, when are they going to admit that, rather than “the nation state being dead”, they’re actually just creating a new giant nation state with imperial intentions? And what the feck use is a powerless “parliament” you vote for, but a legislature that you can’t vote for?
Wayne Lawrence said...
2 Jun 09 at 1:12 am
Oh Gawd,
It’s worse news than it would be finding out St Vince has a duck house on the taxpayer’s tab.
Letters From A Tory said...
2 Jun 09 at 9:52 am
Good analysis. Most people seem to have forgotten how high the Lib Dems scored in 2005 with the anti-war vote that will pale into insignificance compared to the pro-Tory-get-rid-of-Labour swing vote at the next election. The Lib Dems will be lucky to escape with losing just 10 MPs, in my opinion.
burkesworks said...
2 Jun 09 at 11:00 am
This is why they call you the Awesome One! Are you the only other Lib Dem who saw that La Toynbee was switching her support to the Party and went “bleurgh” (or worse)?
David said...
2 Jun 09 at 11:27 am
Polly Toynbee has become an albatross for the Guardian, her politics is now such a caricature it’s unfunny. Any article which trys to tie the Lib-Dems to her wooly communitarian/’social justice’ agenda should be shouted down very quickly.
Foregone Conclusion said...
2 Jun 09 at 11:52 am
I dislike Toynbee because she’s a polemicist, a hack and a champagne socialist. But I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. We’re a broad church – if liberal minded people want to vote for us on liberal grounds, and she encourages them to do so, it’s a good thing.
KeithML said...
2 Jun 09 at 12:47 pm
Whatever you think of La Toynbee, Guardian and Observer readers are amongst the most likely to vote or consider voting Lib Dem (I think the only Independent was higher) so for them to effectively say “vote Lib Dem” is potentially good for the party.
I’d love the Sun to support us, but I suspect we’ll be skating with the Devil before that happens.
Wayne Lawrence said...
2 Jun 09 at 2:28 pm
“Guardian and Observer readers are amongst the most likely to vote or consider voting Lib Dem”
It’s because the LDP is seen as a socialist party, whether that is the ghastly truth or not. If so, why would a failed ideology, viz socialism, be successful under a different banner. It won’t.
I would hope people vote LDP because they had a Road to Damascus epiphany and saw the sense of liberalism (proper liberalism, not as an erroneous nomenclature for socialism).
I hope the leadership see things the same way too.