Tim Farron, the Doctor's nemesis ... fear him!

Simon Blackwell, writer of Veep:

My Irony Meter! It melts! It melts!

in response to this:

Tim Farron:

If you're angry Labour refused to stand up to Tory cuts tonight and want to join a party that will then join us: http://www.libdems.org.uk/join

What the jolly fuck is he on about?

The Lib Dems voting against the welfare bill that most Labour MPs abstained on.

It seems some people don't understand how you can be in favour of a £26,000 benefit cap but not a £20,000 one. Some people are very stupid, after all.

Good on the LibDems for voting against this bill.

It's such a no-brainer that it wouldn't even be worthy of specific praise had Labour not so completely cocked things up. That's how bad Labour have got this - the LibDems look shiny by comparison.

Strontium Dog wrote:The Lib Dems voting against the welfare bill that most Labour MPs abstained on.

It seems some people don't understand how you can be in favour of a £26,000 benefit cap but not a £20,000 one. Some people are very stupid, after all.

The truth is the libdems pre-coalition would ABSOLUTELY have opposed the 26k benefit cap, the disgusting bedroom tax, the reorganisation of the English NHS. We all know it. (oh, and tuition fees).

And then in coalition they bartered away their - supposed - principles for power and a teeny bit of influence, or at least it appeared that way as the Tory leadership were able to temper the batshit policies their back benches wanted and allow the libs to claim they had insisted.

But now we are back to the carefree "principled" libdems. Make no mistake, if the bedroom tax, NHS reorganisation, benefit cap had first been proposed NOW, the libdems would claim principled opposition.

I wouldnt trust the libdems to wash a car.

OlivierK wrote: That's how bad Labour have got this - the LibDems look shiny by comparison.

True - being winner of the "shiniest turd" competition is hardly a great accolade.

Sendraks wrote:

OlivierK wrote: That's how bad Labour have got this - the LibDems look shiny by comparison.

True - being winner of the "shiniest turd" competition is hardly a great accolade.

Remember the electorate has a short memory which is why Cameron is doing the dirty work first.

Oh dear. Oh deary me. How tragic.



Hacked, he says. Hmm.

I wonder if he can claim this was a hack too?

Tim Farron says SNP 'doing the worst and darkest things that people suspect nationalists to be in favour of'

What's the view on why the LibDems lost 27 seats to the Tories in GE2015?

I can understand why they lost 12 seats to Labour as that could be explained by people being disgruntled at their coalition with the Tories but why would previous LibDem voters then switch to the Tories or is it that this didn't happen & Tories won these seats due to a split opposition vote?

Emmeline wrote:What's the view on why the LibDems lost 27 seats to the Tories in GE2015?

I can understand why they lost 12 seats to Labour as that could be explained by people being disgruntled at their coalition with the Tories but why would previous LibDem voters then switch to the Tories or is it that this didn't happen & Tories won these seats due to a split opposition vote?

An awful lot of LibDem seats, I think especially the ones in the South West, were LibDem / Tory marginals with Labour and other parties far behind. A simple drop in turnout of support for them would have been enough to do it, and LibDems switching to other parties would have the same effect under FPTP. The Tories might have gained a small swing but what made the most difference was the LibDems losing it.

Looking at these South-West seats that changed from LibDem to Conservative
Percentage vote share 2015 & change since 2010:

Taunton Deane
CON 48.1 (+5.9)
LD 21.3 (-27.7)
UKIP 12.0 (+8.3)
LAB 9.2 (+4.1)
GRN 4.5 (+4.5)

Devon North
CON 42.7 (+6.7)
LD 29.4 (-17.9)
UKIP 14.8 (+7.5)
LAB 7.1 (+1.9)
GRN 5.8 (+4.4)

Torbay
CON 40.7 (+2.0)
LD 33.8 (-13.2)
UKIP 13.6 (+8.3)
LAB 8.7 (+2.1)
GRN 3.2 (+2.3)

Cornwall North
CON 45.0 (+3.3)
LD 31.2 (-16.8)
UKIP 12.7 (+7.8)
LAB 5.4 (+1.2)
GRN 4.3 (+4.3)

St Austell & Newquay
CON 40.2 (+0.2)
LD 24.0 (-18.8)
UKIP 16.9 (+13.2)
LAB 10.2 (+3.1)
GRN 4.6 (+4.6)

St Ives
CON 38.3 (-0.7)
LD 33.2 (-9.6)
UKIP 11.8 (+6.3)
LAB 9.3 (+1.2)
GRN 6.3 (+3.5)

Is this a 'musical chairs' scenario eg Labour gained some votes from LibDems but lost votes to UKIP?

Maybe LibDem votes went straight to UKIP

For sure it will be.

Also, in a few of those seats Labour did better than the Conservatives in net swing terms, but didn't come close to overcoming the fact that in most they started 30-odd points behind. I think it really is as simple as noting that if seats were contested as LD/Tory matchups in the past, and the LD's commit political suicide, then they become Tory seats in the next cycle, and probably for a considerable time beyond that.

Yellow tories who were supportive of the coalition knew the election was a two horse race between the continuity blue tories and a labour party that would set out to reverse many of the regressive coalition policies that the yellow tories had been signed up to for five years. So it's not surprising that many would vote tory, to cement their vile legacy. You could almost call it Stockholm syndrome but in truth they were full blown tories anyway, just ones that historically voted yellow.

ED209 wrote:Yellow tories who were supportive of the coalition knew the election was a two horse race between the continuity blue tories and a labour party that would set out to reverse many of the regressive coalition policies that the yellow tories had been signed up to for five years. So it's not surprising that many would vote tory, to cement their vile legacy. You could almost call it Stockholm syndrome but in truth they were full blown tories anyway, just ones that historically voted yellow.

Interesting - it would make sense in an area where Labour supporters are sparse. I was thinking many of these LibDems in the south-west were leftish but it looks like more were rightish.

The opposite I would have thought (where labour had reasonable support) - faced with the choice of labour and tory, lots of yellow tories clearly prefer tory and they voted accordingly. The national polls pointing to labour winning were probably enough to give them squeaky bums. I wonder if they look back at the result and regret their choice - which caused the destruction of the yellow tories and a continuing tory government - I expect not, because miliband, or something.