05/02/2009: "liberal democrats"

there are many, who claim a coalition government after the next election, would be "good for britain" should labour fail to win a working majority.

a combination of the best of two parties, has always appeared an ideal world, for those that havent seen one before, but beware, the prospect of a government alliance between two parties, often ends in problems and struggles for direction, because of pressure from any one side.
the liberal democrats have some very able MPs especially vince cable, but not for his views on the economy, but for his stand in role as leader, which was a joy to watch as he mocked gordon brown week after week at labour's staged managed prime ministers questions.

i was asked by the liberals, in my area, to stand as a candidate for them in council elections awhile back, i politely declined, why? because i judge people/parties/official bodies, etc, on what they have done rather than what they say

in 1997, the conservatives, if they had won the election, would have an unprecedented 5th term in office and would have killed off the labour party for good.
so afraid of this was messers blair and brown (their perceived "dream ticket") that secret backroom discussions took place between blair and liberal leader paddy ashdown.

ashdown has revealed in his book, that blair was offering a coalition government of sorts, whereby certain policies would be adopted by a labour government, that favoured the liberal agenda.
you can read one such article about his book here
what was never revealed, was what the liberals would actually do to earn this benefit.

blair spin is now well known, but at the time he was portrayed as a fresh face sorting out a so called mess, behind the scenes he was misleading and spinning, both the public and the liberal democrats.
he wanted to cover all angles, wether labour won a small majority or had to form a coalition government, despite labour having a big poll lead going into the election, kinnock had had the same before major beat him when it came to the vote.

he offered concessions by convincing paddy ashdown, liberal leader, that he shared some of the policy views that the liberals had.
all they had to do now was discuss "payment"
in areas where labour were the second party to the conservatives, the lib dems would field a paper candidate.
in areas where lib dems were the second party, labour would only field a paper candidate.

the aim was simple, dont split the opposition vote which would allow the conservative candidate to win the seat.
the BBC/ITV news channels ran reports during the campaign, about the mysterious lack of canvassing by the third party in some seats during the election.
this happened in many "swing" seats where a small vote for a different party, would change the party in power there.
in one report, a seat where labour finished third at the previous election, the tv news team landed at there campaign office. the outside was plastered with vote labour policies, yet the office was closed and no one was there, despite loking for the labour candidate, they couldnt be found or contacted anywhere, and this just a week or so before a general election!
the same thing was happening in the areas where it was a swing seat, only this time with the lib dem candidate mysteriously disappearing.

unfortunately for the lib dems, labour won with a huge majority, it was then and only then that labour MPs voiced objections and any planned deals were swiftly dropped.
there was even an inquiry into this, which convenietly received little attention from the press or media.

hindsight is a wonderful thing, but knowing what we know now about how blair and brown have been operating, it comes as no surprise to any people opposed to them.

a coalition government "working together for the country" cannot and will not work, it looks great in principle, but whenever backroom deals are the way to govern, this spells bad news for britain!