The worm finally turns....

[David Johnson]

As someone on this forum aptly pointed out - the Olympics is a good time to bury political news. How true!

Finally, finally, the most depressed looking politician in Westminster, Nick Clegg has, for once, realised that political authority isn't everything - power is the key.

He announced today that his cherished House of Lords reform bill was being dropped because Cameron cannot get the necessary support from his own party and in a tit for tat, the Lib Dems would vote against the parliamentary boundary changes act due to come before parliament.

What have Lib Dem supporters lost in the last two years?:

No tuition fee increases - Tuition fees trebled
Trident abandoned - Cost estimates ongoing, Trident only temporarily shelved
Roll back the "police state" - The plan for id cards shelved
Keep schools under council control - huge numbers of academies and free schools set up which are outside council control.
Economic policy for cuts in line with Labour - policy changed to fit with the Tories and the economy has bombed.
Voting reform on AV - Cameron mounted strong campagn against and Clegg trounced
House of Lords reform - shelved etc etc. etc.

What have Lib Dems gained in the last two years?:

Enhanced payments via Cabinet positions
The opportunity to support the Tories on some of the most un-Liberal Democrat policies ever passed.

Time to throw in the towel Cleggie, get out of your ministerial limousine and smell the coffee. Enough of this charade.

[number 6]

Only another 2 1/2 years for clegg and his merry men of gravy train riders then we can send them off to political oblivion where they belong. Never trust a lib dem, middle class snobs mostly,like to think they are left wing,but would never mix with working class people.

[Arginald Valleywater]

Good call Number 6. I find Lib Dems to be a bunch of Terry & June's who can do nothing but snipe and sit on the fence. I have never actually understood what their true political aims are.

[Essex Lad]

Arginald Valleywater wrote:

> Good call Number 6. I find Lib Dems to be a bunch of Terry &
> Junes who can do nothing but snipe and sit on the fence. I
> have never actually understood what their true political aims
> are.

What an insult to Mr & Mrs Medford! In the south Liberals are Tory lite, in the north they are hard left opponents to the Tories. A different policy for every part of the country.

Cameron has a few liberal policies - gay marriage, for one. What IS his obsession with that?

And David 'Roll back the "police state" - The plan for id cards shelved' - isn't that the same thing?

[David Johnson]

"And David 'Roll back the "police state" - The plan for id cards shelved' - isn't that the same thing?"

That is part of it. My point is that there was a whole host of Labour measures that the coalition planned to change. Their Coalition agreement included a promise to ?implement a full programme of measures to reverse the substantial erosion of civil liberties . . . and roll back state intrusion.?

They have done virtually nothing on civil liberties.

[Essex Lad]

Eric Pickles has talked a good game about stopping councils abusing RIPA, printing free local newspapers and at least the Coalition hasn't reintroduced the idea of ID cards... yet. I remember Shadow Home Secretary David Davis writing to all the companies hoping to make a mint out of the ID card scheme and putting them on notice that any future Conservative government would repeal all such legislation.

[Lizard]

And to think during the TV debates he was the seemingly most sensible and least treacherous of the lot. What a cunt eh?

[David Johnson]

I think you would have to agree that what the Coalition have done on "rolling back the police state" is very small beer compared to what they could have done.

Secondly they have announced plans to introduce Internet surveillance etc, a plan which Labour dropped prior to the last election. In addition they have plans to extend secret justice in a green paper which will allow cases which might embarrass the state to be held in private.

SO you could argue that in balance, the coalition are in the process of increasing the police state overall rather than "rolling it back".

[Flat_Eric]

Labour, Tories, Lib Dems .... doesn't matter. They're all a set of self-serving, lying and conniving cunts. Three sides of the same coin (so to speak).

- Eric