Can the Lib Dems win it?

[Acker79]

I think the debate has done wonders for their position as an option.

In parliament you have the labour government on one side, then directly opposite them, the other side of the speaking podium, is the shadow government.They are almost equal. At PMQs they are either side of the same table.

When Clegg gets up at PMQs he's down the hall, talking into a hanging mic like any other back bencher. The room is set up to make him look like just another MP, so the LibDems are treated as such.

With the debates he is put up on the same stage, given the same size podium, the same space, is given the same initial time to respond (it is then up to the strength of him and his argument to maintain rebuttal time), and as such is starting to be treated on the same level.

Can they? Like someone else says, yes, of course they can. Whether it is likely they will or not is another case. I suspect they won't but with the change in appearance the debate has given I think the have a better chance this year than in any other in my life time (and probably the life times of most or all people on here).

I think it would be great for politics in general if they did. Not because I'm a libdem supporter, but because of the "they can't possibly win it's a waste of vote" attitude that is so accepted will start to be questioned, and maybe people will start voting for who they want in instead of who has the best chance of beating the person representing the party they don't want to win.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

If Clegg had better local candidates then maybe, but even then only if they could mobilise the normal non voters who would most likely be the demographic most likely to forge an opinion based on the election debates.

 

[ROKERITE]

Joining The Euro immediately and a complete amnesty for illegal immigrants are both such vote winning policies that I expect the two main parties to remind the electorate just what The Liberal Democrats really stand for.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

Joining The Euro immediately and a complete amnesty for illegal immigrants are both such vote winning policies that I expect the two main parties to remind the electorate just what The Liberal Democrats really stand for.

True, but it depends WHERE they point this out.

Most of the people who are most likely to be swayed by the televised broadcasts are likely to be non political floating voters who may not lap up the Daily Mail, Mirror, Sun's Tory/Lab balancing act.

 

[Uncle C]

I cant believe just how shallow the British public are. Everything the parties stand for is eclipsed in 90 minutes of X Factor TV.

Talk about image over substance - I despair.

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

I cant believe just how shallow the British public are. Everything the parties stand for is eclipsed in 90 minutes of X Factor TV.

Talk about image over substance - I despair.

Same here. It all started with the Diana business in 1997. Yes, a great tragedy, but did it need all that wailing on the street and condemnation of the Royal Family? Then we get obsessed over some Scottish spinster warbling and a pair of talentless twins who can't sing for toffee. I really do wonder at the level of common sense in this country.

As for the election, I would only be in favour of PR if we had a strong fourth party, as they do in Ireland, where Fianna Fail are generally aligned with the Progressive Democrats and Fine Gael with the Labour Party. Then, you can get rid of a government. If we had PR now, that would mean the Lib Dems stay in power more or less permanently, probably keeping a failed Labour government in. Perhaps UKIP will get stronger under PR and align itself with the Tories and help them throw out a Lib-Lab government. Would it be good for the country though if the price for their support was leaving the EU? Whatever, please do not let Baker get anywhere near Transport.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

Last time I checked, the Liberal Democrats were advocating the Single Transferable Vote rather than Proportional Representation as their preferred electoral system. That's the one where there is more than one MP for a constituency and the surplus votes for a winning candidate (and all the votes for the bottom candidate) are re-assigned based on the voters' second preference.

 

[Mr Smggles]

i'd like to think they can

 

[Peteinblack]

I wish they could, but know they won't.

I hate the thought of being governed by either Labour or the Tories; both of them duplicitious, arrogant, finger-wagging, slimeballs, sucking corporate cock and doing nothing to stop exhorbitant pay at the top (where the richest 10% now own - I won't say 'earn' - 100 times more than poorest 10 %), but telling ordinary people that they've got to 'tighten your belts' to get the country out of the financial mess that others have plunged it into.

Except in the four weeks leading up to an election, neither of the two main parties give a flying f*** about ordinary working people or pensioners, so BOLLOX to both of them. I've lived under Tories and New Labour, and honestly haven't noticed any difference; once they get into power, they're both as bad as each other, and both full of bull-shit.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Not so much the Lib Dems winning it but the other two parties losing it. Especially the Tories. They really don't have anything much to offer. And a Clegg/Cable combo would appear to be far more formidable proposition than a Cameron/Osborne ticket (tho neither is fit to lick the intellectual boots of team Brown/Darling).

Have to query tho the reported 'unprecedented 8% rise' in the polls of the Lib-Dems since Thursday night. Reminiscent of the wallies who only report significant sightings of a major crime when it appears on Crimewatch a year after the event. Are people really that ignorant?

Assuming the NoTW don't carry any reports of Cleggy shagging a sheep 'for a bet' at Uni between now and polling day, expecting the Election result to be:

1. Labour (just)
2. Lib Dems (just)
3. Tories (just)

I'll take that

 

[Acker79]

Assuming the NoTW don't carry any reports of Cleggy shagging a sheep 'for a bet' at Uni between now and polling day, expecting the Election result to be:

The sun, I would conspiratorially say out of fear, have started to address the libdems as a threat, dedicating an article to all the sleaze, though it starts weakly by tarring them with lloyd george, then mostly covering how he has changed his mind a few times.

Nick Clegg has put the Lib Dems on the map | The Sun |News|Election 2010

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Clegg's worst moment BY FAR was after the debate ended. Gordon Brown steamed right into the audience and started shaking hands. Probably under instruction from his handlers, admittedly. Nick Clegg went to follow suit but Cameron pulled him back. Then when it became clear that Brown was winning valuable points by pressing the flesh while Clegg and cameron just stood there like lemons, Cameron gave Clegg the OK to join in the hand shaking thing, even pushed him forward into doing it, before following on himself. Which is why the Lib Dems won't win anything ever. And why David Cameron is ultimately a loser

 

[Meade's Ball]

I strongly doubt that people loyal to a party, even after the expenses scandal, will alter their allegiances that much. Yes, the floating voters may be influenced by one night on TV, but there will be more debates on show and the media will continue to issue us warnings and steer us in directions and report on what we're about to do in the coming few weeks and on cross-here-day we'll more than likely see the regular outcome. The Libdems pretty much now have one face to at all recognise. Cable is dimly lit, his name more known than his face, and the tall teacherly one who looks a bit like Simon Cadell has no name to me at all. So now, it's Clegg and little else.
I looked at the facial snaps of the three contenders the morning after, and i got to thinking how so much depends on whether they can look naturally trustworthy and as someone we'd show off to people as our leader. They have to be just like the ones we'd go for when flicking through a thai bride catalogue, folding the corner of the page for the one that looked right on our arms (or faces). Brown is a bit unpleasant to see, scraggy and scabby and saggy and looking uncomfortable with himself. Cameron looks, to me, fakely warm and eager, his chin pointy like the one Fagin hides beneath his strokable beard, and i his eyes sparkling criminally. Clegg, though, looked clean and reasonably chiselled. I know it's what i saw from what a newspaper inserted colourlessly on page and wouldn't actually be how they are, but still, their look speaks of a leaderliness of Clegg alone.
So it seems i am saying i would marry only Clegg of those. I could do worse. And by looking deep into the pits of my mind i think i have.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

The sun, I would conspiratorially say out of fear, have started to address the libdems as a threat, dedicating an article to all the sleaze, though it starts weakly by tarring them with lloyd george

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Joining The Euro immediately and a complete amnesty for illegal immigrants are both such vote winning policies that I expect the two main parties to remind the electorate just what The Liberal Democrats really stand for.

If there was an amnesty for illegal immigrants at least we would know how many are here Why is joining the Euro so bad , if we're to become truly European and not a peripheral state , adopting the Euro would be beneficial as the € wouldn't be competing against the £ and $ , just the $.

 

[auschr]

the system favours the established - so no, not likely

 

[fire&skill]

Tories will win

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Latest projection:-

Labour 287
Conservative 262
Liberal Democrat 70
Nationalists / Respect 14
Northern Ireland Parties 18

Hung Parliament. Labour short by 39

UK Polling Report