Third Party Blues

[poliphilo]

My political memory goes back a long way now- and I don't remember a time when people weren't speculating about whether a third party might not come through and upset the two-party applecart. Surveys would be conducted that showed the electorate liked the third party's policies and personnel and that lots of us would vote for the third party if only.... if only everyone else would too.That's always been the problem- a problem of belief. If we followed our hearts the third party- Liberals, SDP, Lib Dems- would win by a landslide, but commonsense tells us such a thing is impossible, so we glumly make it so by opting for one of the other two parties instead.

I'm a lefty and the Lib Dems are lefties too- not as lefty as I am, but far to the left of the Tories and New Labour. So I should vote for them, right?  Yes I should. And Clegg's victory in last night's debate started me dreaming the impossible dream again. No, they're not going to form the government- that really is la-la-land- but they could wind up in a coalition with Labour. Clegg as Home Secretary perhaps? Vince Cable as chancellor?

I'm wavering .

Comments

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Of course, if you go back far enough, the Labour Party were the third party...

What I also think is that voting for the candidate you actually prefer, even if they aren't elected, tells the other parties where there are votes to be won. If Labour think that their only opponents are the Tories, they'll set out to woo Tory voters and appease the Daily Mail - and we've seen where that gets us. They assume they can disregard the left, because we won't, whatever happens, vote Tory.

So maybe if we can show them that there are votes to be won by being 'liberal' (or green), maybe we can shift the whole debate a notch or two to the left.

Or am I dreaming, too?

[loxian.livejournal.com]

Do not waver. Always vote Labour. That's my advice. But I suppose you could vote for whichever party in your constituency is most likely to defeat the Tory.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Thankfully here I can vote Plaid Cymru, who are way to the left of Labour and even the Lib Dems. :)