Patricia - you are reminding me a bit of the right in America that continually prophesize national destruction through the communist policies of Obama. "Dark ages" is surely going over the top.. are the tories planning to put the teaching of creationism back in the school syllabus? And why should we want to integrate further into Europe? Where does it stop, when it becomes the United States of Europe? Why can't we cooperate and trade with Europe without continually eroding our sovereignty?
It seems to me that a coalition government, while it could achieve nothing, could also usher in some (relatively) better politics. And you are going to get some of your liberal policies represented, and a referendum on voting reform.
I am pretty much in agreement with Iavas here.
And I lived in Thatcher's Britain, and those
were the dark ages.
Kind of.
At least, Ber, it's not
all Tories in charge.
This coalition government might all end in a bitter divorce but it might just work.
I am not, and am very unlikely to ever be, a Tory voter but Cameron does seem to represent a more liberal, compassionate kind of Conservatism and has worked hard at making his party more progressive. We'll see just how deep that goes, of course, and I
am nervous about where the Tories plan to slash. I don't like their record on public spending cuts!
But maybe having Clegg alongside Cameron in a civil partnership
will curb Tory excesses. I hope that Cameron can keep at bay the more hardline right-wing elements in his party, certainly.
But I don't embrace absolutely everything the Liberal Democrats stand for either. For example, I would like a far greater degree of transparency, honesty and democracy from those who claim to represent us in Europe. There is no party here that represents my POV: I'm not a complete Euro-sceptic and regard the likes of UKIP as cranky and not a little xenophobic. I don't want the UK to leave the Union but neither do I want us to surrender our national sovereignty, piece by piece. (Why on earth should we?)
Also, on the domestic front,
whoever got into power would have to make drastic cuts. Whoever is in power now will have to do very unpopular things.
(
And we have the Olympics looming like a giant juggernaut.
Right on top of our national deficit.
I'll bet the French are sighing with relief that it's us and not them.
)
Labour have done a lot in recent years that have disappointed me, not least their stance on civil liberties. However, I am glad that they didn't get massacred at the polls, we need them to be a strong opposition.
The Rochdale incident was wildly overblown but although I think Brown misread the situation with Mrs Duffy, it didn't make me think too badly of him, if only because everyone makes a bad judgment call now and then. (His honesty and lack of charismaticism endears me to him, too.)