The BBC. This is just cruel. “Labour MPs Ponder move to Lib Dems if Labour loses election” says Paddy Ashdown, being played for a complete idiot. If Labour MPs are talking about going to the Lib Dems, it’s because they’re trying to embarrass Gordon Brown and scare him into doing something. That’s the story here. 

Paddy, however, has taken it all on face value and thinks this announcement is helpful. What? Labour’s MPs – the political equivilant of radioactive leper paedophiles – are going to defect on mass to the Lib Dems, thus ensuring that if Labour goes down “the f**king liberals are coming with us” and that’s helpful? 

Someone’s misreading the public mood. 

Even if we take it on face value, another intake of authoritarian collectivists is the last thing this party needs. 

See, I’m trying to help save our MPs with wafer thin majorities like Jeremy Browne, who wrote this:

There is no such thing as ‘liberal socialism’. There is liberalism and there is socialism.

… which is something that needs repeatedly banging into people’s heads, over and over. And then once more for luck.

If economic liberalism has a future in the Lib Dems, it’s by having more MPs that understand this, that understand that you can’t ‘free’ people by controlling their money, you don’t ‘free’ people through regulation, you don’t ‘liberate’ people through censorship and oppression. 

Perhaps I missed an internal party memo, but even Alix Mortimer, who’s usually bang on, misfires here:

With all our imperfections – and I’m far from happy with some areas of policy – the Lib Dems are now, quite clearly, the natural home of progressive politics (in itself not a phrase I use lightly). Labour voters, supporters, media commentators and even Labour MPs should get behind the Liberal Democrats, examine their programme for government critically, point out the flaws, trumpet the glories, recommend them to the nation and vote for them.

I don’t even know what “progressive politics” means. In Ireland, the Progressive Democrats were a bunch of economic liberals. I’d quite like ‘progressive’ in that sense. In America, Progressive is a new euphasism for Socialism. That’s becoming the dominant meaning over here too… and that would be very bad. Perhaps she’s been very clever here and I’ve missed something, but this does leave me baffled. (UPDATE: Alix is basically showing what Polly Toynbee should do if she is to follow her logic. Quote, “I couldn’t give a shit whether we attract Labour supporters or not.”)

Trying to pull people out of the Labour Party – journalists, voters, supporters, members and MPs – those poor oppressed, battered creatures with heads full of collectivism, loyalty and talk of ‘traitors’ is a complete waste of time and energy, and if successful would be the very worst sort of entryism imaginable. Some people just can’t be unplugged from the matrix, you know? 

Just let Labour die peacefully. Let’s not go looting its corpse – that’s not how I roll, yo.