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If the Liberal Party does well in the EU elections, and the LibDems do badly, as I hope they will after their Lisbon perfidy that ought to make more LibDems think harder about the party's pro-EU conformity.
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I wish people would think harder about the EU policy, however a kicking at the polls won't change minds (debate and reason will). Lib Dems always do badly in the Euros, UKIP beat us last time, the Greens humiliated us back in the nineties , and a ‘Li
teral Democrat ‘ robbed Adrian Sanders of the Devon seat, allowing Giles Chichester to win, and so ‘whoops a daisy’ he could pay his own company nearly half a million quid. Yet today we have more MPs since Lloyd George's day.
But even in 2004 in the SW the Liberal Democrat/Liberal Party List (that’s the Gibraltar Liberal Party) increased its vote by 2%. Even if the rumour of a rich plutocrat /generous donor funding you for the Euros is true, I can’t see you over-taking the Lib Dems.
Money alone is not enough. If as I suspect, the counties are at the same time as the Euros, the Lib Dem activist base will be stirred and Lib Dem county councillors and their families will be out campaigning (I’m sure Labour always called the GE at the same time as the local elections to motivate disgruntled activists). Since 1999 we have MEPs, who will have a strong vested interest in motivating the party beyond the usual lacklustre euro campaigns of the past.
The public has a plethora of small euro-sceptic parties to vote for, UKIP have cornered the anti-EU market with a simple and easily understood ‘get out of the EU’ message – your , ‘reform or we threaten to leave’ policy , helps party cohesion – it allows different members interpret the policy differently , but isn’t exactly a snappy slogan – it sounds like a fudge. Harden the message and you risk a schism.
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'Con Libs' instead of Continuity Libs leads me to think more frequently of 'DimLibs' for the LibDems! Perhaps a truce is called for!
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Fair enough
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The fewer LibDem MPs there are in the next Parliament, possibly holding the balance of power, the better the chances for the future independence of the UK.
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You’d rather see a Labour or Tory MP than a Liberal Democrat? So euro-scepticism trumps Liberalism! Doesn’t that confirm my argument that increasingly euro-scepticism, rather than Liberalism is the defining ideology of the continuing Liberal Party. What about my Lib Dem MP who defied the whip (but kept to conference policy) to vote for a referendum on Lisbon. You are fast becoming UKIP-Lite, with moderate UKIPers looking for a new home, they might easily take the Liberal Party over.
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Unfortunately, they mostly accept the ideal of "ever closer union", which I wish I had realised in 1975 was a serious and almost religious ideal, to which I am strongly opposed. I prefer a Europe of cooperative but independent progressive nations. I do not like being ruled in so many tiresome ways from Brussels. I would personally like one UK Liberal Party including the LibDems that would take us out of full membership of the EU, but not an EU-fanatic/phile/phoric Liberal Democrat one!
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In many cases the tiresome regulation is a result of British civil servants ‘gold plating’ EU rules – best practice becomes absolute requirement. We are a grossly over regulated society, frankly it doesn’t matter if the source is Whitehall or Brussels, we need to be liberated from big government.
Just imagine you win an MEP, which group does this ‘real’ Liberal join? They couldn’t possibly join the Liberals in European Parliament!