Remember kids the Lib Dems don't care whether you vote yes or no in today's elections, they only care how many of their colleagues fail to get elected. The best way to punish the Lib Dems in Scotland is to ensure they come in fifth behind the Greens.
However, one question that will be much discussed in the coming days as the Lib Dem stretcher bearers take away the remains of their fallen comrades is... will Nick Clegg, the most hated political leader in the UK, resign as leader of his party?
Well, the answer is no, because his sort never go quietly - but the New Statesman does have a very handy pull out section from the Lib Dem rules on how to get rid of the leader. The important section is as follows;
"(e) a vote of no confidence in the Leader being passed by a majority of all
Members of the Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons;
"(f) the receipt by the President of a requisition submitted by at least 75 LocalWell, (e) seems very unlikely but I wonder about (f)... after an election that's more than bruising up and down the country the question is will the yellow grassroots continue to put up with Clegg's leadership?
Parties (including for this purpose, the Specified Associated Organisation or
Organisations representing youth and/or students) following the decision of a
quorate general meeting; "
It's unlikely that anything can save the party from its inevitable destruction now, despite the resilience of the activists in a very hostile political environment. They do still have a choice though. Go out with honour, by their own hand, or be suffocated in the night, unnoticed and despised.
Annie Leonard and co. (
Adrienne Mayor (
Ed Howker and Shiv Malik
Floella Benjamin (
Mark Watson (
Tim Jackson (
David Wilson (
Clive Lord (
Nickie Roberts
7 comments:
"It's unlikely that anything can save the party from its inevitable destruction now, despite the resilience of the activists in a very hostile political environment. They do still have a choice though. Go out with honour, by their own hand, or be suffocated in the night, unnoticed and despised."
The irony of reading this on a green blog is making me giggle.
Ah - blogger just ate my comment... I'll have to summarise rather than type it all again...
I know my place - we're a small party.
However YouGov did a poll yesterday on how people felt about the parties and one in three wanted the greens to increase compared to only one in eight hoping for lib dems to increase.
You can see the results here
http://scot.gr/updown
You might despise us, but it's not a view commonly shared as we, of all ther parties, had the least number of people saying they wanted us to decrease our MSPs.
Meanwhile in England, where we have just voted to retain First Past the Post, we have a set of election results as follows.
Half the councils in England, 100% of the seats to Labour, 0% to LibDems and Tories. The other half the councils in England, 100% of the seats to Tory, 0% to Labour & LibDem.
The LibDems are entirely finished as an electoral and political force in England. Funnily enough they have a beter chance of a comeback in Scotland, because there there is PR.
The choice now for LibDem activists in England is between resigning & joining Labour, resigning & joining the Tories, or carrying on slaving away without any hope of electoral success - in which case, they might as well join the Greens.
I don't think that Lib Dem councillors with a good reputation for local representation and a social and environmental conscience, who genuinely feel that their party has moved away from them, should worry about joining the Greens.
Here in Liverpool, John Coyne left the Lib Dems over a matter of principle in 2006. He joined the Greens. He was re-elected as a Green councillor in 2007 with 38% of the vote, and has been re-elected again with 50% of the vote this year.
In Middlesborough, Joe Mishna joined the Greens in 2007 and has just been re-elected as a Green councillor. http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/2011/05/07/local-elections-2011-middlesbrough-results-84229-28651765/
In Totnes, Robert Vint left the Lib Dems last year and has just been re-elected
http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/news/Councillor-leaves-Liberal-Democrats-join-Green-Party/article-2559567-detail/article.html
No Lib Dem is under any illusion that re-election as a councillor is going to be more difficult if you join the Greens instead of Labour / Tories with their established party machines. That in itself is an indicator that when Lib Dem councillors do join us in the coming months, it will be a considered decision.
"the Lib Dems don't care whether you vote yes or no in today's elections, they only care how many of their colleagues fail to get elected"
Jim, given that the Greens officially backed Yes to AV, does that mean that they also didn't care which may people
voted as long as they got more MPs elected or are the Greens somehow more principled and the Lib Dems, bizarrely, are not?
Put another way, why can't Greens and Lib Dems just get along on vote reform?
"why can't Greens and Lib Dems just get along on vote reform?" This seems like a good start Jeff:
http://www.libdemvoice.org/the-independent-view-how-to-implement-full-lords-reform-now-that-the-referendum-is-lost-24070.html
Can't find it now, but a poll on LDV found most Lib Dem members would vote Green (38%) as their second choice. I don’t dislike Greens and have lot in common with some of them; however I am a Liberal and however much the national picture upsets me I’m staying . In 2003 I won my council seat from Labour by 5 votes, the Tories didn’t even bother to stand then, I held it in 2007 with a 200+ majority and held it again on Thursday – but in 2007 and this year it was the Tories who were challenging me.
Sorry for the slow reply!
Jeff: my point is specifically about the Lib Dems. If they'd won AV but had a bad election night it would be a bad night for them, if they'd lost AV but had a good night otherwise they'd have been very happy.
Actually that's probably true for the Greens too. If it had been PR that might have been different as the effects would have been more wide ranging.
Can't we get along? Well, the Lib Dems consistently voted against Caroline's amendments that might have seen a referendum we could win, so they need to pull their finger out.
David: Where we go from here on Lords reform is vital and I'll be happy to back Clegg's proposals (and no diubt argue for more at the same time).
Once I've caught up on my blogging I'll be writing on the Lords in that vein.
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