Dear all, Have represented the Lib Dems here for almost a decade perhaps time for me to put in my two pennies worth! David it won't surprise you to know that I disagree with your rather simplistic analysis of my views (and other Lib Dem colleagues).  I have always explained that my political philosophy is rooted in taking a balancing approach to social, economic and environmental interests. Conal said "My anger with the Lib Dems is that they have assisted those who wish to maintain the two party stranglehold on the UK. Instead of setting themselves apart and forcing the changes we need as a vocal opposition party they have muzzled themselves in government." Unfortunately I dont think the markets (City of London) and media interests would have given the Lib Dems the space for our voice to be heard if we had sat it out.  Rather than using continued opposition to make the case for PR I think we would have been slaughtered if another General Election was triggered for not doing our bit to provide responsible and stable government at this time. James Graham captures my feelings well in this piece for The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/12/lib-dems-coalition-labour With our local party membership continuing to rise since the election and as this polling would also suggest: http://www.libdemvoice.org/pollwatch-views-of-the-coalition-government-and-party-leaders-19632.html ...generally people seem to understand the difficult situation in which the Lib Dems found ourselves - and feel that thus far our parliamentary team are rising to the challenge rather well. Fundamentally as I believe in PR, I also accept that coalitions may be formed with a variety of parties at different points in time. Vanessa said "there is no way the Tories will go for PR, not that I think it's a particularly good idea personally, but I always thought it was the main plank of the Lib Dem policies" Clearly you haven't read the Lib Dems GE Manifesto 2010: http://network.libdems.org.uk/manifesto2010/libdem_manifesto_2010.pdf As you will see there were many more policies the party had to negotiate on than simply PR. You can read my reflections on the election results here: http://www.andrewdakers.com/profiles/blogs/thank-you ...and thoughts on the Lib Dems-Conservative Coalition agreement from a Corporate Responsibility perspective (a particular passion of mine!) here: http://www.andrewdakers.com/profiles/blogs/corporate-responsibility-is-1 Best, Andrew

Entire Thread

Topic	Date Posted	Posted By
Dismayed Lib Dem voters...	20/05/10 12:05:00	Conal Stewart
Phew! ...	20/05/10 13:20:00	Sarah Felstead
Re:Dismayed Lib Dem voters...	20/05/10 15:05:00	Vanessa Smith
Re:Dismayed Lib Dem voters...	20/05/10 18:08:00	David Giles
Re:Re:Dismayed Lib Dem voters...	21/05/10 17:58:00	Andrew Dakers
Re:Re:Dismayed Lib Dem voters...	21/05/10 21:33:00	Neil Chippendale
Re:Re:Dismayed Lib Dem voters...	23/05/10 13:19:00	Vanessa Smith
Re:Re:Re:Dismayed Lib Dem voters...	24/05/10 14:34:00	David Giles
Re:Re:Re:Re:Dismayed Lib Dem voters...	24/05/10 14:41:00	Vanessa Smith
Dismayed Lib Dem voters...	25/05/10 13:11:00	George Knox
Re:Dismayed Lib Dem voters...	25/05/10 14:29:00	Steve Taylor
Re:Re:Dismayed Lib Dem voters...	25/05/10 15:24:00	David Giles
Re:Re:Re:Dismayed Lib Dem voters...	25/05/10 16:36:00	Steve Taylor
Re:Re:Re:Re:Dismayed Lib Dem voters...	25/05/10 17:04:00	David Giles

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