Looks like the liberals in Britain were sold out by their leaders too.

[DefenseLawyer]

Welcome to the club, fellas.

[Hannah Bell]

1. long ago.

[Echo In Light]

2. K/R

[Oregone]

3. Ah you mean because Clegg didn't support the super hippy liberal pot smoking union supporting Labour

?


Right?

[NJmaverick]

yeah they are much better off now!

:eyes:

A smart man learns from his mistakes a wise man learns from the mistakes of others.

[WeDidIt]

4. Nope, Clegg bought his party some time

and most important of all, there can be no vote of no confidence unless Clegg says there is.

What this means is, the next elections will happen when they are most advantageous to the Liberal Democrats.

[Oregone]

8. Oh, but this argument is so not simple. It hurts my head

I know Nader is evil in America. So Clegg must be there too. Its the only thing that makes sense

[WeDidIt]

10. The system in the UK is completely different, ergo, the rules here do not play there

Clegg will call for a vote of no confidence in six to nine months.

The Tories were so hungry for power that they made the deal with the devil (from their perspective). Their reign will be week and if timed correctly, a no confidence vote will hit the country when people are still pissed off at Labour and have become pissed off at the Conservatives.

That could put the Liberal Democrats into a position of real power after new elections and result in their main issue being achieved, proportional representation.

[DefenseLawyer]

12. Or not... n/t

[Posteritatis]

18. Heard that kind of prediction before. (nt)

[conspirator]

5. Of course. When I see anyone who is happy to go cast their vote

I always try to sell them a bridge.
If the US has a single Party with 2 right wings. We here have single Party with 3 right wings.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

6. I hope their marriage doesn't last

Cameron can be sadistic poor little Cleggy.

[Posteritatis]

7. Woo! Britain is now Canada c.2006! (nt)

(ed. Wow, what a typo.)

[Oregone]

9. Yeah, exactly. Jack Layton is the Deputy Prime Minister with 6 NDP cabinet ministers fighting to...

reform the electoral system....


:sarcasm:

[Posteritatis]

16. Oh wow, a ceremonial and largely powerless position!

If Clegg gets that position it'll be meaningless anyway. Nothing of substance comes with that slot in either the UK or Canada unless the Prime Minister decides otherwise, and those decisions come and go at a whim anyway. If the LDP get any cabinet positions - and if the party even votes to join a coalition with the Conservatives - they'll serve at the prime minister's pleasure anyway. I'm not holding my breath for anyone whose party has yellow as its color in any significant position in the cabinet.

The NDP up here are Conservatives for all practical purposes, supporting a governing party which rejects every facet of their existence because they hate the saner of the two big parties more. So far I'm seeing a whole lot of exactly-the-same, though I'm open to the possibility of being pleasantly surprised if the LDP actually gets to implement any policy or blunt the worst of the Conservatives' plans in the next year or so.

[Oregone]

20. "The NDP up here are Conservatives for all practical purposes, supporting a governing party"

:rofl:

Yet it has been the Liberals propping up the conservatives on all those confidence measures prior to last year.


"If Clegg gets that position it'll be meaningless anyway"

I guess we will see. You are shitting on the idea before it comes out of the gates. You may eat crow later (or I may). Time will tell.

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. The rumour from teh BBC political editor is that the Tories have given up their inheritance tax cut

and will instead raise the personal income tax allowance, a Lib Dem policy. But the Tories will implement the £6 billions of cuts in public spending this year they wanted, which the Lib Dems said had to wait so that they didn't endanger economic recovery. That rumour has been heard by other reporters too.

So, if that's correct, there has been some blunting of Tory plans.

[craigmatic]

11. this sucks for the UK. I bet they feel like how I felt in 2000 when bush "won".

[Oregone]

15. I bet they don't because they actually understand their system

[rurallib]

13. did Clegg get anything like a promise on proportional representation?

or did that go down the crapper?

[Posteritatis]

17. Neither of the big parties could possibly support it. (nt)

[muriel_volestrangler]

19. Nothing definite on what has been agreed yet

but yesterday, the Tories offered the Lib Dems a referendum on switching to instant runoff voting (known as Alternative Vote here). It's not proportional representation, but would be slightly advantageous to parties that are fairly close, to stop them splitting their votes and allowing someone else in.

Here's a simulation of how this year's seats might have changed, under the current system (First Past The Post), Single Transferable Vote (a proportional system that the Lib Dems advocate), and Alternative vote:

	C	L	LD	SNP	PC	Other
FPTP	307	258	57	6	3	19
STV	246	207	162	13	4	18
AV	281	262	79	5	3	20

http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/news.php?ex=0&nid=469

So you see AV doesn't necessarily make that much difference, but the Conservatives lose a little under it.

Some Labour MPs are in favour of AV, some aren't; until no, no Conservative has advocated it (and saying they'll hold a referendum doesn't mean they'll campaign in favour of it).

[kenny blankenship]

14. Well done Labour!

You poodled and police stated and third wayed your way into the ashbin of history - again.
Not many parties could do that. I know of only one other, and it's on its way to joining you.