A very thoughtful and timely piece. I had been thinking along these lines.
All the main parties are internal coalitions, albeit the LibDems are a narrower big tent that the other two. I have not looked lately, but quite recently, conference votes on issues were typically split 2/3 to the centre left and 1/3 to centre right. I have been a member on and off since the 80's, but only active for 2-3 years in the early 90's when I saw how dirty and pro Tory the local newspaper was in Epping Forest, which made getting a pro LibDem piece of news into it, nigh on impossible. So I concentrated on being in a folk rock band instead.
I have never detected any hard left elements in the LibDems, but they can be pretty right on, on social & culture war issues. these are best kept quietly private or played down from around the public for now, in my opinion.
If the LibDems came second, it would be at least a minor revolution in British politics or even if close to the Tory representation, I can see the Tory wets coming over rather reluctantly to escape the Farage populist menace. I think the LibDems are flexible enough to absorb those, after all Labour have done worse recently. There was surprisingly almost no opposition to going in with the Tories. Activists were far from keen, but felt it had to be done for the good of country, considering the financial crisis and enormous deficit and recession. Also to see where it would go after decades in the relative wilderness.
Where the coalition went was a clutch of measures pushes through against Tory gritted teeth and being bounced into various and endless unpopular cuts. Then being blamed for austerity and student finance by the major party that insisted on them and held the purse strings. They then cynically targeted LibDem seats and blew most of them away, overturning some LibDem policies enacted and failing to overturn others on renewables, due to clever contracts written by Davey, until 9 years later. I see this as payback time with bells on it. Nasty Party fools acted as if they could be in power forever and could trash a potential future coalition partner and walk away as if that had been in a vacuum. The Tories now have no substantial potential partners in Parliament and Davey has said "never" to that. Even the DUP are suspicious, in trouble and shrinking.
There is a history of Centre parties on the continent and elsewhere, with more radical memberships who are pulled by a right wing magnet of business interests and electoral maths, eventually splitting and forming new parties. You can see some of this in the excellent Danish drama Borgen. It also happened in the Netherlands with the breakaway D66, the Party LibDem activists salivate over.
What we can't all have is a political party that perfectly reflects each of our beliefs, so the best compromise is all you can do. I would have been fairly happy to have a Heseltine wet pro EU tory party in government, but their activists would never allow that and the Tory wets nearly always side with their right wing in the end, which is decidedly not acceptable or any good for the country they have literally wrecked.
If we got PR through, parties would split and new ones would form in a dynamic and competitive process that can only be good, but the coalitions would tend around the centre and public ownership and long term planning could be maintained without the Tories getting unwarranted monopoly power and selling it off or closing it all down. If you look at Germany, having PR voting has not resulted in them having any more representative parties than in Britain.
Lets welcome a broad tent LibDem centre party able to govern Britain, alternate with ( hold your nose) Labour and push the right wing populists and liars into the wilderness, out of power for the distant future and get on with rebuilding Britain.
What a lovely world it would be if all shades of political opinion could belong to a party that really represents their beliefs. A big IF here but if the current volatility in UK politics can lead to an introduction of PR then smaller parties would not find it impossible to have a role in UK politics... which would also allow the majority who want closer ties to Europe ,and even to rejoin, to have their voice enacted.
As a LD member for a very long time, their prime purpose in 2024 is to get back to the Paddy, Charles Kennedy numbers? which might mean they could be the official opposition if some polls are to be believed. Then that'd be a whole new ball game
As an active Liberal Democrat, at local and national level, I personally think the opposite. Your assessment of Ed Davey is rooted in the past and gives no allowance for people's thinking to develop and change. I think he absolutely gets the dreadful state the country is in and indeed is far more likely to move to the left than to the right.
And in other, equally relevant political news, it has been revealed that Mrs. Dale and Jill Archer had tea together in 1957.
George Galloway has predicted that if the weasel Starmer becomes PM, Britain will be at war in six months. I think he is right; certainly against Hezbollah, thanks to the lock the "Friends of Israel" group has on the Lib/Lab/Tory establishment. Probably also against Russia too if the likes of CGS Colonel Sanders has his wish.
But look on the bright side: If Britain is a smoking nuclear ruin nobody is going to be complaining about the NHS waiting time for a hemorrhoidectomy.
In more telling news it seems Starmer has promised the medieval head hackers that he will introduce blasphemy legislation to protect islam from criticism. This is important: Centuries of struggle and pain went into achieving the right to criticize organised religion. The gutless, dishonest, ignorant POS Starmer would throw that away just to satisfy his requirement to win a few seats in the NW Frontier region of England. The man is disgusting, but he is not alone in that.
So the fiddling continues; as another set of opportunists salivate over the chance to get their snouts in the trough. There will be no improvement, rather the reverse, decline into dystopian nightmare is now built in.
Just to cap it off; I saw last week that my birthplace, the London Borough of Brent, apparently regularly conducts council business in Urdu.
Living in a solid Lib Dem seat one gets a foodie’s of their strength further afield … but driving through the Cotswolds their present is far more widespread than the Tories. I suspect the higher end of your estimate is closer to the mark. And the odd election scenario with Farage assuming he wins will upset a lot of the sensible Tories. As DAG would say brace brace
A very thoughtful and timely piece. I had been thinking along these lines.
All the main parties are internal coalitions, albeit the LibDems are a narrower big tent that the other two. I have not looked lately, but quite recently, conference votes on issues were typically split 2/3 to the centre left and 1/3 to centre right. I have been a member on and off since the 80's, but only active for 2-3 years in the early 90's when I saw how dirty and pro Tory the local newspaper was in Epping Forest, which made getting a pro LibDem piece of news into it, nigh on impossible. So I concentrated on being in a folk rock band instead.
I have never detected any hard left elements in the LibDems, but they can be pretty right on, on social & culture war issues. these are best kept quietly private or played down from around the public for now, in my opinion.
If the LibDems came second, it would be at least a minor revolution in British politics or even if close to the Tory representation, I can see the Tory wets coming over rather reluctantly to escape the Farage populist menace. I think the LibDems are flexible enough to absorb those, after all Labour have done worse recently. There was surprisingly almost no opposition to going in with the Tories. Activists were far from keen, but felt it had to be done for the good of country, considering the financial crisis and enormous deficit and recession. Also to see where it would go after decades in the relative wilderness.
Where the coalition went was a clutch of measures pushes through against Tory gritted teeth and being bounced into various and endless unpopular cuts. Then being blamed for austerity and student finance by the major party that insisted on them and held the purse strings. They then cynically targeted LibDem seats and blew most of them away, overturning some LibDem policies enacted and failing to overturn others on renewables, due to clever contracts written by Davey, until 9 years later. I see this as payback time with bells on it. Nasty Party fools acted as if they could be in power forever and could trash a potential future coalition partner and walk away as if that had been in a vacuum. The Tories now have no substantial potential partners in Parliament and Davey has said "never" to that. Even the DUP are suspicious, in trouble and shrinking.
There is a history of Centre parties on the continent and elsewhere, with more radical memberships who are pulled by a right wing magnet of business interests and electoral maths, eventually splitting and forming new parties. You can see some of this in the excellent Danish drama Borgen. It also happened in the Netherlands with the breakaway D66, the Party LibDem activists salivate over.
What we can't all have is a political party that perfectly reflects each of our beliefs, so the best compromise is all you can do. I would have been fairly happy to have a Heseltine wet pro EU tory party in government, but their activists would never allow that and the Tory wets nearly always side with their right wing in the end, which is decidedly not acceptable or any good for the country they have literally wrecked.
If we got PR through, parties would split and new ones would form in a dynamic and competitive process that can only be good, but the coalitions would tend around the centre and public ownership and long term planning could be maintained without the Tories getting unwarranted monopoly power and selling it off or closing it all down. If you look at Germany, having PR voting has not resulted in them having any more representative parties than in Britain.
Lets welcome a broad tent LibDem centre party able to govern Britain, alternate with ( hold your nose) Labour and push the right wing populists and liars into the wilderness, out of power for the distant future and get on with rebuilding Britain.
What a lovely world it would be if all shades of political opinion could belong to a party that really represents their beliefs. A big IF here but if the current volatility in UK politics can lead to an introduction of PR then smaller parties would not find it impossible to have a role in UK politics... which would also allow the majority who want closer ties to Europe ,and even to rejoin, to have their voice enacted.
I’ve always thought they should become a home for liberal ‘wet’ Tories, concerned for the environment, pro European, free trade etc.
As a LD member for a very long time, their prime purpose in 2024 is to get back to the Paddy, Charles Kennedy numbers? which might mean they could be the official opposition if some polls are to be believed. Then that'd be a whole new ball game
As an active Liberal Democrat, at local and national level, I personally think the opposite. Your assessment of Ed Davey is rooted in the past and gives no allowance for people's thinking to develop and change. I think he absolutely gets the dreadful state the country is in and indeed is far more likely to move to the left than to the right.
And in other, equally relevant political news, it has been revealed that Mrs. Dale and Jill Archer had tea together in 1957.
George Galloway has predicted that if the weasel Starmer becomes PM, Britain will be at war in six months. I think he is right; certainly against Hezbollah, thanks to the lock the "Friends of Israel" group has on the Lib/Lab/Tory establishment. Probably also against Russia too if the likes of CGS Colonel Sanders has his wish.
But look on the bright side: If Britain is a smoking nuclear ruin nobody is going to be complaining about the NHS waiting time for a hemorrhoidectomy.
In more telling news it seems Starmer has promised the medieval head hackers that he will introduce blasphemy legislation to protect islam from criticism. This is important: Centuries of struggle and pain went into achieving the right to criticize organised religion. The gutless, dishonest, ignorant POS Starmer would throw that away just to satisfy his requirement to win a few seats in the NW Frontier region of England. The man is disgusting, but he is not alone in that.
So the fiddling continues; as another set of opportunists salivate over the chance to get their snouts in the trough. There will be no improvement, rather the reverse, decline into dystopian nightmare is now built in.
Just to cap it off; I saw last week that my birthplace, the London Borough of Brent, apparently regularly conducts council business in Urdu.
Farage couldn't lead himself out of a paper bag!
Living in a solid Lib Dem seat one gets a foodie’s of their strength further afield … but driving through the Cotswolds their present is far more widespread than the Tories. I suspect the higher end of your estimate is closer to the mark. And the odd election scenario with Farage assuming he wins will upset a lot of the sensible Tories. As DAG would say brace brace