Britain’s Third Political Party Loses The Plot – Again
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I wonder whether anybody remembers Britain’s Liberal Party. They used to form governments, just like the Conservatives and Labour. They were seriously big players politically speaking. They had a majority and formed the government of the UK for the last time in 1906. In fact, they won that General Election with a landslide.
Something clearly went very wrong after that.
A brief explanation of what happened to them from Wikipedia is :
The Liberal Party went into decline after 1918 and by the 1950s won no more than six seats at general elections. Apart from notable by-election victories, its fortunes did not improve significantly until it formed the SDP–Liberal Alliance with the newly formed Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981. At the 1983 general election, the Alliance won over a quarter of the vote, but only 23 of the 650 seats it contested. At the 1987 general election, its share of the vote fell below 23% and the Liberals and Social Democratic Party merged in 1988 to form the Liberal Democrats. A splinter group reconstituted the Liberal Party in 1989.
That, in a nutshell, is how the UK became a ‘two-party’ democracy, fought over by the Conservatives and Labour parties.
It’s been a pretty long and fruitless journey for British liberals, hasn’t it? You have to admire their reserve if nothing else.
So. Is there a chance, given Labour’s seemingly failing fortunes, that the Liberal Party, now The Liberal Democrats could ever make an amazing come back after all this time?
Well. No, actually.
They’ve decided to focus on becoming the ‘anti-Conservative party’. Seemingly oblivious to the fact that Labour is already that.
They’ve decided to focus on ‘Trans-gender’ rights – very worthy certainly, but hardly a huge vote catcher.
They’ve decided to focus on, well, that’s about it as far as listening to their leadership debate seemed to suggest.
The LibDems fought the last General Election insisting that they would overturn the Brexit vote and remain in the European Union.
That went well.
LibDem leader, Jo Swinson, who started the campaign saying she could become the next Prime Minister, lost her seat to the Scottish National Party’s (SNP) Amy Callaghan in Dunbartonshire East.
In a country that the LibDems could, imaginatively, suggest has three main parties, they came, er, fourth.
Yes. I am indeed having a laugh at their expense.
The serious side though is this.
Unless Labour actually ‘get their act together’ – and electing a new leader, Sir Kier Starmer, as they have, might be a start, we do actually need a third party capable of ‘stepping into the breach’ as a genuine opposition party, should Labour fail to gain ground on the government.
It’s like a democratic ‘safety net’. A ‘two-party’ state, which is what Britain is basically, is not altogether healthy for a true democracy.
The Liberals had, for seemingly ever, been insisting that proportional representation was the truly democratic way – with some justification.
They did go noticeably silent on the subject when they realized, after one General Election, proportional representation would have resulted in a very right-wing Conservative/UKIP government, but, it has to be said, their argument has considerable validity.
Their real problem is, they, as a serious political party, have almost zero validity.
Oh to be back in the 1800s eh Liberals? Those were the days!
In case you missed it: A Tide of Anti-Semitism—Is Britain Turning Nasty?
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Neil, you Brits are sort of like we “mericans. We are all reaping what we have sown over the many centuries of enslaving and colonizing other peoples. You are blaming them for your country’s atrocities in the past just as the White Supremacist do in this country. You grabbed up people by force and used them as unpaid labor, i,e, slavery and when that was not longer viewed as proper did not know what to do with them. So now you and we are stuck with their descendants who are claiming their rightful, equal place in society. You may not like it but there it is, and the world is watching.
Bill. We owe them nothing. What our ancestors did is not our problem.
There’s one BLM activist calling for older white people, like us, to move out of our three bedroom home into a one bedroom apartment, so a black family in said one bedroom apartment can move here.
What??? Sod right off. We’ve worked for what we have got. Bloody hard too. I will give them nothing. Ever. I don’t care about slavery or Empire. Not my problem.
The descendants of slavery/Empire are fully entitled to equality in all things. They are not entitled to recompense.
If they are, then I want recompense for my Great Uncle killed in WWII by the Japanese. My wife wants it for her Great Uncle who died in Normandy – pay up Germany.
While we’re about it, the Italians can start coughing up too. The Roman Empire did some damage to some in Britain back then.
While we’re on the subject, get your cheque book out Bill. Make a reasonable amount out to me. An ancestor of mine was killed by American ‘friendly fire’ in WWI…..Come on! Pay up!
Not one penny cent will I ever give to any of the BLM mob. I’d much rather they were sued by business owners who had their businesses ransacked – many were black business owners too!
Load of tosh mate. They are owed absolutely nothing and will get absolutely nothing. And quite right too!
Love yer man though 🙂
Jess : 😘😘😘😘😘
I’m over it. Some guys can be pigs, so can some women though so there is that 🙂
Mike : Clear as mud and absolutely correct!
Jess : I’m actually, in between taking the mickey out of them, saying we need a strong 3rd party. The Liberals were strong into the first part of the 20th Century. I’d like them to be again. It’s healthier for our democracy!
It’s all good. I am in a mood right now with some seriously twisted goopers that made some truly disgusting comments about me, my bf and my best friend and I am taking it out on everyone right now. Plus side, I found out what “tunnel buddies” are and ayup it’s as disgusting as you think it is.
Tunnel buddies as in the penitentiary slang? If so, I know what it is, not because I’ve been in the penitentiary, but because I’ve put lots of people in there and I spent a lot of time interviewing them. You’re right. It’s as disgusting as it sounds.
AYUP but not pen stuff like two gay men, two guys sharing the same woman. I always thought it was called being an eskimo brother but what do I know. Bf and my best friend were at some guys thing with his unit and I guess someone asked my best friend if he and I fucked and how did he feel about my boyfriend and him being “tunnel buddies” in my cavern of longingness or some such crap. Best friend tried to tell the guy he’s gay and has been my best friend since middle school but he was not believing that till my boyfriend gave him what’s what for being so disgusting about me.
So the whole going back to the 1800s is some nuclear level bullshit so you know. Would you like the wimmins to sit back and not be heard like back then? What about the whole slave trade deal, want that to come back also. Damn own that conservative flag you fly and do not tell anyone you are liberal when it is clear you are not.
Bill : Another thought (don’t laugh I do have odd ones 😉)…. Don’t mistake the British Liberal Democrats for America’s Democrats… They’re different beasties entirely 👍
The American political spectrum is considerably to the right of its equivalent in Europe. Although the UK is itself further right than many other European countries, the left-wing in the States occupies what we would, at best, call center ground.
So, the left-wing of the American Democrats may roughly align with the right-wing of the Liberal Democrats. The left-wing of the Lib Dems would be further to the left than Bernie Saunders. And the British Labour Party, despite having drifted considerably to the right over the last 3 decades, is still left of the US Democrats.
Mike : See my response to Bill. I’m Conservative on specific topics, Socialist/green on others. You don’t have to be just one thing or the other mate.
Ooooh… My Cherries 🤪🤣🤣🤣
Bill : It’s never that black and white mate. Re-nationalise the railways and utilities. Protect the environment. I’m ardently what would be described as ‘left wing’…. I’m right wing on immigration, related topics and not much else…. So… I’m all right wing?
No. You’re not all Right Wing, as I’m not all Left Wing as you know.
Very good Neil. You have established the obvious, that you are a conservative, particulary where race is concerned. I actually think that you, Trump, and what’s his name, the Trump look-a-like are three peas n a pod.
Boris Johnson, and yes, Neil is a conservative, and over here we could call him a hard right-winger. I won’t go so far as calling him a white supremacist, but… Love to see Cherries’ response to this 🙂