tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7520303675367700778.post1552650192267396028..comments2024-03-26T22:57:21.033+00:00Comments on Random Views: Liberal Democrats: trying the same thing and hoping for a different outcome...David Beesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00393977902379776532noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7520303675367700778.post-7783173035431758152017-12-20T17:35:02.279+00:002017-12-20T17:35:02.279+00:00Hi Steve
Most of what you say strikes me as havin...Hi Steve<br /><br />Most of what you say strikes me as having a lot of merit. But I'm not sure that the financial crisis of 2008 absolutely had to have a government with a majority to sort it. If one allows that a Tory government had to be formed, only because they were the biggest single party in parliament, I think the Lib Dems could have argued that they owed it to the country to let the Conservatives form a government <i>precisely to deal with the crisis and nothing else</i>, which could have been done with a confidence and supply arrangement, as we have today.<br /><br />As it happens, I think this would <i>only</i> have been defensible on the grounds that the Tories had come top in 2010, not because they were more suitable to solve the problem. I think Alastair Campbell did a far better job in his seven quarters of fighting the crisis than Osborne ever did. <br /><br />Had the Lib Dems gone for a confidence and supply arrangement, I think they'd have avoided the taint of association with some terrible policies. They might not have found themselves having to go back on their pledge on student fees, which cost them horribly. Naturally, the arrangement would have been unsustainable in the long run, but the Lib Dems could have said after a couple of years, "well, the worst is over. Let's go back to the country and look for another mandate."<br /><br />Naturally, I don't know what the outcome would have been. No one can when we're talking about a counter-factual. But I think it could hardly have been more damaging to the Lib Dems - or, for that matter, to the country.<br /><br />As for Brexit, both main parties are split. That's what made the referendum campaign so lacklustre and ineffectual. With the Tories, I expect no less. But I <i>am</i> deeply upset that Corbyn won't speak out on the issue. I feel he's proving an extraordinarily ineffective leader of the Opposition to the Tories.<br /><br />I won't, however, follow you into the Lib Dems, precisely because of what happened in 2010. I believe the Lib Dems should be a party of the centre left, and its most natural ally should be Labour. That it propped up a Tory government for five strikes me not just as a poor tactical choice, but a profound betrayal of principle. I think we're not quite into year 3 of what might be a 20 or more year struggle to rebuild the Lib Dems by putting that terrible decision behind them...David Beesonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00393977902379776532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7520303675367700778.post-75579318035799757552017-12-18T12:17:14.513+00:002017-12-18T12:17:14.513+00:00In the period after the 2008 near banking collapse...In the period after the 2008 near banking collapse when the government was underwriting bank debts of multiples of our country's GDP, it was rather important that a stable government was in place and the reassurance that came with that stability resulted in the very low interest rates that helped us survive. I know that there are some that feel it would have been better for chaos to rain down on society and let the establishment reap what it has sown, but I suspect that we would all have been the poorer for it.<br />Then, of course, there was Brexit. The LibDems were the only party that campaigned against Brexit in the 2015 election. Labour and Conservative both hedged their bets in the hope that there would be time to change the prevailing narrative in advance of the promised referendum. A colossal miscalculation for which we continue to pay a massive price. <br /><br />That was the moment I decided to join the LibDems...<br /><br />Sometimes, doing the right thing is not rewarded and is even very costly. That does not automatically make it the wrong thing to do, even if it does make you an easy target for light weight comedians who like to mock the application of principles in politics.<br /><br />Steve<br />Chair of the Hastings & Rye LibDemsStephen Miltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17212728753445348404noreply@blogger.com