The Liberal Democrats, often shortened to Lib Dems, are a centrist political party in the United Kingdom, formed in 1988 by a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party. The two parties had formed the electoral SDP-Liberal Alliance for seven years before then. The party’s leader is Nick Clegg.
The Lib Dems are the third-largest party in the UK Parliament, behind Labour and the Conservatives. There are 63 Lib Dem Members of Parliament (MPs) – 62 were elected at the 2005 general election, and one in the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election, 2006. The Scottish Liberal Democrats formed a coalition Scottish Executive with Labour in the first two sessions of the Scottish Parliament, and the Welsh party were in a coalition with Labour in the National Assembly for Wales from 2001 to 2003.
Promoting social liberalism, Lib Dems seek to minimise state intervention in personal affairs: they oppose what they call the ‘nanny state’. Their president’s book of office is John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty, which defined the harm principle of law. While objecting to state limitations of individual rights, they favour a welfare state that provides for the necessities and amenities of life.
They support multilateral foreign policy; they opposed British participation in the War in Iraq and supported the withdrawal of troops from the country, and are the most pro-European Union of the three main parties in the UK. The party has strong environmentalist values – favouring renewable energy and commitments to deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Since their foundation, Lib Dems have advocated electoral reform to use proportional representation, replacing the House of Lords with an elected chamber, and cutting government departments.
From:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Democrats
Also see Liberal Democrats Policies Debate for discussion on specific Liberal Democrat Policies. For a Liberal Democrat Party discussion not covered below feel free to create your own forum topic at Liberal Democrat Party Forum.
Please use the comment form below to describe why you will or will not be voting Liberal Democrat Party at the 2010 General Election.
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19 responses to Reasons to Vote Liberal Democrat 2010 General Election
I’m voting for the Lib Dems instead of labour, because of their opposition to the Digital Economy Bill (#DEBill), which is a very dangerous bill which threatens us with disconnection from the internet, and national web censorship.
They also will propose a bill to reverse all of the police ‘terrorism’ laws, introduced to have more control over the population. These laws take away fundamental rights, and are often used to suppress demonstrations of free speech.
That is why I’m voting Lib Dem. I am usually a Labour supporter, and prefer Gordon Brown, but I’m voting in an attempt to take us away from a V for Vendetta future.
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Reasons to Vote Liberal Democrat 2010 General Election
The best reason not to vote Lib Dem is their mantra in relation to proportional representation. If voting patterns in the EU election were followed the BNP would secure 45 seats in the Commons. In a hung parliament that is a significant powerbase which would skew certain policies towards the far right – it would have to otherwise the voting block would not suupport the leading party. The Lib Dems have singly refused to answer this question. (EU election 7% o vote with 1.2Million, equates to 45 out of 635 seats)
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Reasons to Vote Liberal Democrat 2010 General Election
“If voting patterns in the EU election were followed the BNP would secure 45 seats in the Commons”
Although I share your concerns about proportional representation I can’t see the voting public still voting for parties like the BNP unless they actually agree with the BNP ideas, so less likely for a wasted protest vote on the BNP under the single transferable vote which is what the Lib Dems want.
Also STV doesn’t share seats by popular vote countrywide, so the BNP could gain 5% of the popular vote countrywide and still not gain a single MP. To gain an MP a candidate still need a fair % of the vote or at best a lot of voters listing them as their second and maybe third choice.
Basically if every area gave the BNP 5%, their vote wouldn’t be enough to gain a seat and their votes would be shared to other candidates (2nd choice) with more than 5% of the vote.
Biggest concern regarding the BNP is in areas where they might gain over 10% of the vote, like with the EU elections they might scrape through a few MPs.
A handful of BNP MPs will have no real power in government.
David
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Reasons to Vote Liberal Democrat 2010 General Election
Ah ha!
So it’s only PR if it works for one party, but not for others… this exposes the selfishness of the so-called “PR” crew.
In truly proportional representation, every voting bloc must be represented in the parliamentary outcome. That is why I do not consider any of the transferable voting systems to be proportional at all, just “modified majoritarian”.
The LibDems and their supporters should either go for full and complete proportionality, or work with first-past-the-post and stop whingeing. Even the US president is elected by electoral college state-by-state, which can yield occasional perverse outcomes. So what? the system is mostly fair, and virtually always decisive.
Give me government by the many (Tory or whoever with most seats) over pop-idol by the few any day of the week.
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Reasons to Vote Liberal Democrat 2010 General Election
nw dis country is goin 2 change go gve urz vote 2 da liberal democrate a fink without mr clegg we can b stll stuk in recession gud luk mr cleggg
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i dont know whether to vote for lib dems or conservative – frankly i think they are all a bunch of liars!
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