Oh yes, just what we need. Harriet Harman to tell the nation where it is at.

What's that I hear? The sound of an alarm bell ringing.

She is a liability to Labour as much as Gordon. Though the fact that the public are switching to from the Liberals shows that the Liberal leadership have clearly have taken their membership for granted.

Unfortunately, as I said before the election, I can only see the coalition being bad for the libs in the long run. It's impossible to maintain your integrity and respect when you're in bed with the enemy. By the time they've been screwed for a few years, they'll either be completely broken or totally assimilated.

For now, yes. But if they do well in this government, at the next election they may well get more votes. People, who in the past have voted for Labour, may think that teh Lib's are not the "also ran" party and that they've shown they're worth voting for.

Yes but they have to convince the membership, and since they do not have too many big donors an exodus of members could be a problem for them.

I'd rather vote Tory than Labour.

Ditto. So saying, I am probably a swing voter who hasn't had the chance to swing yet So that may change. Although the tories would have to go very wrong indeed if they were to overshadow labour's 'achievements' of the last 13 years...

+1
They don't seem to undeerstand the concept that things have to be paid for. They just borrow borrow borrow.

I was concerned about the borrowings some 4 years ago before the crisis. Though I doubt that the Tories would have done things very differently. Remember that Tony was following the right wing political play book for most of that period and as such the Tories had nothing to really complain about. Don't forget that Nu Labour did not revoke much Tory legislation, particularly employment legislation or the right to buy even though it lead to a resurgence of the BNP.

I know Labour don't smell of roses from the financial crisis but I'm yet to be convinced the coalition have any new and inspired ideas other than cut everything they can find.

What I find amazing is that Labour seemed to get blamed for the entire banking crisis and many who were responsible have gotten away with it scot free.

Think I may go into banking.

The Coalition have blamed Labour for the mess that national finances are in. Yet ignoring the fact that practically every other country in Europe and the western world is suffering from the effects of the global financial crisis. If the Tories had been in power they would have suffered from the same problems as Labour. The coalition's own regulatory system would not have prevented such a crisis.

The duplicate thread has been locked.
The debate should continue here.

I am a lifelong wishy washy Liberal, and there is absolutely no threat of me jumping ship to Labour or the Tories. Under the circumstances, I would have been horrified if they had got into bed with Labour to form a minority government, and had they refused to form a coalition with the Tories on dogmatic grounds I would have been scornful in the extreme. My team's place in current affairs is exactly what it should be given the parliamentary hand they were dealt: junior members of a coalition.

If there's really anyone who can't deal with that, they are no loss, they should be Libs because they believe in the core policies, not because they believe in not being Tories. So they can sod off with my blessing.

Not that I really believe Harman's press release. I never believed the numbers that New Labour gave out while they were in govt. I'm not starting today.