Liberal Democracy
Thank god Nick Clegg went with the Conservatives. If we’d cobbled together some kind of Frankenstein alliance for the sake of clinging on to power, the country would never have forgiven us. That said, there has never been a better illustration of the political maxim “vote Liberal, get Tory’.
In the cold light of day though, the election results are pretty humiliating for all three parties. Humiliating for the Liberals, who despite the seeming adoration of the public and the media, couldn’t halt their slide even further into third place. Humiliating for the Conservatives, who have had to abandon a string of flagship policies and only get to govern by permission. And humiliating for Labour, who have lost a record number of seats, and got tossed out of Number 10 with a boot up our backsides.
Shortly after the results were announced, Ed Balls said ‘the public have spoken, we’re just not quite sure what they said’. Personally, I think it couldn’t be clearer.
I think what happened with the Liberal Democrats actually occurred on polling day. People who went to vote saw the ballot paper and wouldn’t recognise a Lib Dem MP on there and voted for Conservative instead.
Had Nick Clegg’s name been on every paper across the land, the Lib Dems would have gotten more votes.
It’s one thing Nick Clegg promoting himself and his party’s values, they needed to promote their own individual MPs more in order to win themselves more seats. As the sudden popularity of the party overwhelmed everybody, let alone themselves, they became unable to capitalise on it all and ultimately led to their own downfall.
Just my 20ps worth…