On Saturday, I went to a football match with my daughter. It was at Craven Cottage, a ground I have always wanted to visit. For reference, I haven’t been to a football game in a long time; to give you a time scale here, at the last match I attended, David Beckham was playing. We were merrily on our way until we got to Earl’s Court, where we discovered the District Line had been closed, completely. Not because of an incident, but on purpose. Getting the rest of the way to Fulham was difficult and time-consuming as a result. As it must have been for thousands of people trying to get to the match, or for that matter, those attempting to get to West Ham’s ground that day. Large scale events happening at different ends of the District Line, but TFL shut basically the whole line down for repairs. It was demonstrative to me of how badly run the city has become.
I had an epiphany, as I walked through a rainy west London, on why the Lib Dems doing well in this election is so important, not just for Brexit but for everything. For make no mistake about it: we are poorly governed at present and if either the Tories or Labour win outright, that is set to continue and will almost certainly get worse.
Over the past few months, we’ve witnessed several MPs from both Labour and the Conservative parties move to the Lib Dems. While none of them would say what I’m about to say for obvious reasons, they moved not because of what the Lib Dems are at present but what they could become. What they have to become if we are to have any hope: a large tent party containing people who want government to apply itself wholeheartedly to fixing the problems we face as a country as practically as possible. Who see Brexit for what it is, a time-wasting sideshow, and want to fix the UK, starting now. Who don’t want a decade of life-draining trade negotiations with the EU, not to mention reality-uncovering negotiations with other nations, all so we can become a haven for dodgy money to swirl around London. Or for that matter, to make every wealthy person in the UK flee while everything is ideologically nationalised.
Perhaps what I’ve just described above isn’t your bag. Hell, it probably isn’t a lot of Lib Dems’ bag, for what it’s worth. But for those of you who like the sound of this big tent party, I urge you to vote Lib Dem on December 12th. Lend them your vote, please, for all of our sake’s. Because if the Lib Dems do well, they could be on their way to being the party I have described in a couple of years time. Conversely, if they do poorly, it will reconfirm the duopoly in the harshest way imaginable. Never again will anyone serious leave their party for the hope of something better. We will have Boris Johnson and the increasing freak show the Tories are descending into, with Jeremy Corbyn or one of his piss-poor acolytes as the only alternative to that. Both of them look scarily likely to be validated in this election.
Coming back to my difficulty getting to Fulham’s football ground: I don’t think I can vote Labour or Tory again, at least until either of them start to resemble something remotely decent, never mind competent. I feel like I have lent Labour my vote in an election (Sadiq, for reference) only to then feel like I’ve ended up validating the continued platform that Richard Burgon and Rebecca Long-Bailey are allowed. Think about it for one second: do you really think either Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn are fit to be prime minister? Maybe you think one of them is. But if you don’t, as I say, please vote Lib Dem. It is genuinely the only way I can see out of the hole we’ve dug ourselves as a country.
Nick
I get where you are coming from i voted for charles Kennedy a really decent caring human being who stood alone against the media and the whole of parliament when he stood against the invasion of iraq
But for the love of god i cannot support swinson for her enabling austerity a vile and viscious tenure with the freak party
A cynical and purely political tory attack on the weak and vulnerable
Nearly a fucking decade and now your mates the freak party as you call them have discovered Keynes
Who would have thought invest your way out of debt
The liberal party lack a soul and it died with kennedy
So sorry I will be voting labour to stop a hateful conservative party
Stop harking back to what happened in coalition where the Tories were the stronger party. Look at the situation today, we are in crisis. All parties have changed, Tories have moved to the right, labour to the left and the Lib Dems are reestablishing their liberal credentials.
Tories have moved to the right
Rubbish have they. This is perhaps the most left-wing Conservative government since Thatcher. Just look at all the spending they’ve announced. On every issue except leaving the EU (which is itself not really a left/right issue, it’s orthogonal to that) they are not right-wing at all.
As a previous LIBERAL councillor during the Jeremy Thorpe era (that unfortunately unravelled) & after having spent a whole day as his guide in Cheshire, electioneering with him, I was totally sold on the liberal philosophy & the man himself. I was astounded by what later developed but I was sold on being involved with a party that offered moderation in politics as opposed to the extremes of the Conservatives & Labour. You are correct in your current analysis; little has changed. This is the second opportunity in the past sixty years to move in a different, more sustainable, fairer direction than previously under the two ‘main’ parties. The last opportunity was lost through that Norman Scott affair. It’s important that this emerging Liberal Democrat party keeps its nerve, sticks to its mantra and continues to offer a new way forwards without wasting valuable efforts arguing with or even siding with the other contenders. Their candidates must stay on track and stick with their policies backed up by a sensible programme of renewal.
But but but, I don’t want to be governed by the JCR committee.