27 January 2006

Most Lib Dem voters switching to Labour.

The latest poll puts Labour up 4% at 40%, the Conservatives up 1% on 39% and the Lib Dems down 5% to 13%. It is hardly surprising that Labour is benefiting the most from the Lib Dem collapse, since most Lib Dem support is on the left of the political spectrum. The Lib Dems are in dissarray. I won't criticise Simon 'straight choice' Hughes too much, because when he started in politics, it was impossible to be openly gay and win elections. But he is in denial when he calls his homosexuality a mistake and his bare faced lies are not to his credit. What is it with the Lib Dems and dishonesty? Is it all the Janus-faced tactics of this duplicitous franchise of a party that have turned its MPs so hypocritical?

I say to any Lib Dem member, come and join the Labour party and tip the balance of membership behind proportional representation. Labour is the only party that can give us PR, with more social liberals inside the party, it may give us the impetus to getting a referendum on PR for the next general election.

11 comments:

  1. "What is it with the Lib Dems and dishonesty? Is it all the Janus-faced tactics of this duplicitous franchise of a party that have turned its MPs so hypocritical?"

    errrr... I wouldn't push that too far. More importantly, why would we want these guys? If they seem to be equally fair game to Labour and the Tories doesn't it suggest we would be better off without them?

    Remember how they started - splitters... They've not done us any favours since.

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  2. There are a lot of social democrats in the Lib Dems that could quite easily fit into the Labour party, in fact we probably need them. The more members the better.

    Did you know for instance that the largest student political party is Conservative Future (Although their numbers of relatively small 15,000). When you think of past NUS leaders this shows the sheer loss of support that Labour has endured, mostly because of the opportunistic opposition to tuition fees from the Tories (which they have now dropped).

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  3. This is the second time you've called for Lib Dems to join your New Labour Party - exactly how many have joined since your last call? None, and makes you look foolish. When David Cameroon did this for the whole country only one went, as they were welcome to him.

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  4. Why did a former Tory MP defect to the Lib Dems and not Labour yesterday? It seems to me that people from other parties are joinging the Lib Dems not defecting from it.

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  5. LibDems back up to 18% today

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  6. "mostly because of the opportunistic opposition to tuition fees from the Tories (which they have now dropped)."

    Or perhaps their idiotic introduction.

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  7. Tuition fees hit the middle classes, they are redistributive. Remember that, when you oppose them, you are talking about the working class funding middle class students through university.

    The poorest students receive a grant and are therefore insulated from fees. Nobody pays the effectively 'interest free' loans back until after they have graduated and are earning above a threshold. The Tories want commercial rates of interest on loans, some friend of students they are.

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  8. Neil, attacking the Tories (worse) policies does not defend Labour's policies.

    Introducing fees is an essential component of commodifying higher education - a situation we are now forced to move towards under our agreements in GATS. Under these agreements the only way to have defended higher education against a free market would have been to retain it as a free public good.

    The pernicious effect of this is to turn students into customers and the educational experience into a market transaction. The wider implications of this for intellectual culture within universities and the country, as departments are forced to prove their economic viability and usefulness should be clear and terrifying to any one who supports critical intellectual engagement with the world.

    Not content with the destruction of universities as one of the last bastions of free-thinking, protected from the imperatives of capital and taint of commerce, this government seems to wish to tear their very fabric apart. What evidence is there to support 50% participation rates? Even if wider participation at this (arbitrary) level were a good thing (it may well be) the rate of expansion is far greater than the institutional infrastructures can cope with. The increrase has not been acompanied by sufficient cash either - not just in terms of cash per student, but in the extra capital costs of (for example) new builidngs and the adaptations needed to allow current facilities to cope with the pressure. The problem these fees were meant to solve were caused by years of underfunding, followed by an ideologically driven rate and level of expansion. What and what quality of courses are these kids going onto? The greater access s to battery farm education based on photocopied chapters of books - nice one.

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  9. Poll gives the Lib Dems 20% today, Labour down 4%

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  10. There is a 3% margin of error on every poll. All the polls I've seen in the last 3 days including today, have put the Lib Dems between 13% (yougov which predicted the last general election the most accurately) and 18% (ICM today) with Labour and the Tories neck and neck. Labour have benfited the most from the Lib Dem collapse and the Tories poll figures are very disappointing considering the Cameron media honeymoon.

    These sorts of fluctuations are either down to margin of error or I suspect different polling methods, the poll of 20% for the Lib Dems is probably from a poll that usually places them higher.

    The bottom line is that the Lib Dems have lost a lot of support and most of the Labour supporters they had gained are returning home.

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  11. The poll of 40% for Labour is one which 'usually places them higher' as well. Your logic is flawed once again.

    The one thing we might - for once - agree on is that if the Tories are to form the next govt they needed to be much higher than they are, post new leader etc.

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