Saturday 22 April 2017

Possible LD coalitions

I am still in the middle of a campaign to get more Liberal Democrat councillors into the chamber of the civic centre in Port Talbot. National politics comes well down the list of my concerns at present. However, Tim Farron's honesty in not ruling out a coalition as a result of the general election on June 8th has raised a mini-storm. A comment on an unrelated post here seems to invite my own views.

I want to see the Liberal Democrats as the largest party in the new House of Commons - in these volatile days, not an unrealistic aspiration! Failing that, I would want Tim Farron to go into coalition with a party, or cross-party group of MPs, on a programme which closely matches our manifesto, but we should not go into government for the sake of it. We should be prepared for constructive opposition, even in a hung parliament. As a believer in proportional representation, which leads to a wider representation of opinions in national parliaments, I believe this is the only valid stance.

However, a sticking point for me would be serving under the present prime minister, who is the most untrustworthy I can remember (and I am including David Cameron in the comparisons), or under the current leader of the Labour party who has been a grave disappointment even to his own supporters.

Jennie Rigg puts it all more bluntly.


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