For the sake of fairness, I hate the liberal guy too. Who the internet tells me is a guy called Nick Clegg who looks like a prefect at a public school.
My problem with liberal guy is basically out of frustration. For the last decade, up until the last couple of years, the Conservative party were, quite admirably, stuck determinedly on a path of self-destruction. They elected unelectable leaders. They had no policies, because the only policy the Conservative party has ever had in opposition has been to ‘wait until Labour cock things up’ – a policy which saw them bitterly twiddling their thumbs for over a decade.
This was a fantastic opportunity for the Liberal Democrats to become the second main party and to change British politics permanently for the better. To finally push through some form of proportional representation (which I’m not particularly keen on, but I can appreciate the arguments in favour of it).
Instead, they were content to remain in third place. That’s what irritates me about the Liberals. They treat politics as a hobby. You get ludicrous things like a Liberal MP calling for airbrushing to be banned... the amateur-hour politics of a party that is happy to remain on the sub’s bench, scared to take power. Except on a local level, where they are the party of political opportunism; Tory Liberal Democrats in a Tory seat, and Labour Liberal Democrats in a Labour seat.
But my rant is basically directed at everyone who voted for Menzies Campbell; a party leader who appeared and behaved older, and more frail and faltering, than other politicians of his age, who sent out the signal loud and clear that the Liberal Democrats are the party for people who want to play at making Policies Which Will Never Happen.
