They can maybe save the country from a national disaster, but they have set themselves on a path of destruction if they succeed.
When the Liberal Democrats made the fateful decision to join forces with the Tories in a coalition in 2010, they turned their back on the values that were once so integral to the party.
Under the leadership of Nick Clegg, they abandoned many of the social democratic policies that won them popularity, including their pledge to abolish tuition fees, and it proved a costly fault as they lost a whopping 48 seats in the House of Commons during the 2015 elections.
Since 2015, the party has slowly been trying to build itself back up from the eight seats it was left with, and now holds itself as an alternative solution to Brexit.
While the Conservatives face knock-back after knock-back on negotiations and juggle inner-party turmoil, the Liberal Democrats have made their stance so very clear: let’s not do Brexit. A simple thing to do when you have only 18 MPs.
However, can the party really be trusted?
After all, just today they made a 180 turn and moved away from their campaign for a “People’s Vote”, with members voting to cancel Brexit if they win the general election at the Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth that the party would be campaigning for Article 50, the bill which notified the EU of the UK’s departure, to be revoked.
Following the vote, Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson said that they would “do all we can to fight for our place in Europe, and to stop Brexit altogether.”
Now I, and probably all of you reading this, really do not want to leave the EU. I’ve never known any different and the thought of medicinal shortages, food shortages, hard borders, and other disastrous events are quite terrifying.
The Liberal Democrats are offering the perfect solution I can get behind, but their history, as well as the current moves are concerning.
The onboarding of Conservative defects such as Sam Gyimah and Phillip Lee is disturbing, especially Lee, who has historically campaigned against LGBT+ progression, including same-sex marriage.
They may have to “go through a process with our chief whip” to ensure they share liberal values, according to Swinson, but the Lib Dems will risk turning into a party that only focusses on one issue: Brexit. And what happens if they do get elected, stop Brexit, and then they have a cabinet falling apart at the seams because they can’t agree on any other area of politics?
They can maybe save the country from a national disaster, but they have set themselves on a path of destruction if they succeed.
Meka Beresford is a freelance journalist. Follow her on Twitter.
6 Responses to “Can we trust the Lib Dems?”
Dodgy Geezer
This is a spoof, right? Or it’s written by a gullible 9 year old?