Every day for the next 5 days (starting Tuesday 23 March 2010 until Saturday 27 March 2010) I will Blog the good, the bad and the ugly of the 5 main UK Political Parties, in alphabetical order (and all in my opinion).
Thursday: The Labour Party
Friday: The Liberal Democrats
Saturday: The UK Independence Party
Saturday: The UK Independence Party
I believe you must never stop questioning your own beliefs, and must allways keep an eye on what your "competition" is doing right and wrong.
The Liberal Democrats
www.libdems.org.uk
www.libdems.org.uk
The Good:
- The Liberal Democrats have allways striked me as a Local Party. They seem to do very well at local elections, and they hold just 400 less council seats than The Labour Party, with a total of over 4000 Lib Dem Councillors. As well as having electoral success locally, the Party seems to work well at a local level, with branches taking on alot of responsibility while campaigning on local issues.
- Nick Clegg, The Liberal Democrat leader, is the nearest thing to a true liberal in The Houses of Commons. As well as being culturally liberal he is also a market liberal and has been described as Libertarian leaning by many. I just find it a shame that the Party he represents can't also lean towards the Libertarian philosophy. As well as having a political viewpoint I can relate to, Nick Clegg has also allways seemed like a genuine, almost down to earth sort of politician.
The Bad:
- A vote for The Liberal Democrats is a vote for The Labour Party? This statement is being flung about quite a bit recently, mainly by scared Conservatives it has to be said, but how much truth is there in it? As I have said in the past, the outcome of the 2010 General Election will either be Red, Blue or a dirty mixture of Reddy-Blue. What can The Liberal Democrats really achieve in Westminster other than take votes away from The Conservatives? Is it worth having another 5 years of higher taxes, higher public debt and more civil liberties eroded for the sake of a few more Liberal Democrat MP's? Or is it worth having another 5 years of all those things, just to see David Cameron's smug face drop?
The Ugly:
- The Liberal Democrats opinion on The European Union is niether Liberal nor Democratic. As well as welcoming the flawed "Yes" vote in the Irish Referendum on The Lisbon Treaty, The Lib Dems also campaign for the UK to adopt the Euro. This is the Party's biggest downfall, and I still struggle to understand why a Party that has the words "Liberal" and "Democratic" in their name support such an illiberal, wasteful and undemocratic organisation such as The EU.
Tomorrow I discuss the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of: The UK Independence Party.
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For me, the best thing about the Lib Dems is how open they are about drug reformation. That's a huge thing in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteYeh, that is another big bonus for them. The only reason I didn't put that down is because I have already talked about The Green Party having intelligent drug policies. Even though I fully support the legalisation of currently controlled substances, I don't want to come accross as some sort of druggie haha.
ReplyDeleteI think the Lib Dem's bad points far out wiegh their good points though, unfortunately.
You shouldn't be afraid to say that you support something because you are worried what people may wrongly think. Everybody in society would benefit from the legalisation of controlled substances, whether they use them or not. Everyone needs to see that though, and they won't if we're too scared to talk about it.
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