A new Centre party?

www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/29/leave-donor-plans-new-party-to-replace-ukip-without-farage

More than 5000 people have joined the LibDems in the last few days because of Tim Farron's strong pro-EU stance

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/liberal-democrats-win-over-5000-new-members-with-pledge-to-fight-brexit-a7104841.html

Coalitions of all or the major parties work in times of war, but will never work at any other time. Such groupings are inherently undemocratic and need the external threat of something as terrible as a war to hold together.

A coalition of Labour, Greens etc etc wouldn't work either. Have a look at the problems Israel has where they seem permanently to be governed by a coalitions of multiple small and fissiparous parties, which constantly argue fall out and walk in and out of opposition and government.

We had a brilliant MEP for twenty years, Graham Watson, who did more for our region than the rest of the MEPs put together.

He was also for five years the elected leader of the Europaean Liberals, quite a significant group in the EU parliament. Graham is fluent in several Europaean languages and an excellent speaker and debater.

I once asked him why he had never appeared on Question Time and he said MEPs were never invited to appear on QT - except Nigel Farage.

During the time Graham was working hard for us in the EU and Nigel Farage was picking up his pay and expenses for doing damn all, Farage appeared on Question Time 27 times.

The BBC loves controversy, is not interested in consensus and sees politics as a branch of entertainment. If the BBC did not actually create Nigel Farage, they certainly promoted him and should have some responsibility for his part in the destruction of this country.

Yes, Paul Nuttall, MEP for the North West, elected by lots of people who do not know they elected MEPs. He's a very nasty man.

There was a centre party for years. It was New Labour, the Blairites.

The UPKIP spokesman in QT has just said the government should now be a Brexit government ,

Giles Fraser has just said we need a government of national unity.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2016/06/26/is-a-new-centre-party-on-the-cards/

Centre party sounds good kitty
But would they leave their ego at home?
Unfortunatly I don't think that it would work.

I agree whitewave and the best way that can be achieved is for parties to work together for the common good.

This whole awful referendum fiasco need never have happened had it not been for ambitious and unscrupulous politicians in the Tory party working to promote their own interests, not the even interests of their paty let alone the interests of the country.

The most important thing in my opinion is to keep the nationalist far right from any more gains

The Liberal Democratic party was a merger of the Liberals and SDP, whose view of the world was very similar.

Great progress was made between the early eighties and 2010 when the party faced a very difficult decision. The outcome of that election was that no party had a majority and although most LibDems were closer to the Labour party than the Conservatives, the numbers did not add up for a Labour/Lib Dem coaltion. It was decided (but it was by no means a unanimous decision) that we should work with the Tories in the interests of the country.

The alternative would have been a minority Tory government and another election soon after. The Tories were the only party with the money to fight another election and they would probably have won.

I was one of the LIbDems who reluctantly supported the coalition and in spite of the achievements that were made where good LibDem policies were enacted and bad Tory policies were blocked, I now think that it was probably the wrong thing to do.

The coalition served the interests of the country but not the party.

I live in an area where the Labour party is virtually non-existant and so the LibDems did attract votes from left-leaning voters. They were not so much Liberals as anti-conservative and they were no longer prepared to vote for a party that had "got into bed with the Tories"

We realised in 2015 that because of this we were on course to lose a third of our votes and about half of our seats. However Nichola Sturgeon made a big impression at the televised debates and SNP support rose. When she uttered the triumphalist "we will work with the Labour party to lovk the Tories out of Downing Street for ever" there was an immediate reaction in England and we lost two-thirds of our votes from 2010 and almost all of our seats. In spite of getting twice as many votes as the SNP we only have eight MPs and they have all the seats in Scotland bar three.

In spite of this party membership has soared and over a thousand new members have joined in the last few days.

The last thing we need is a new centre party. The Labour party, Tories and Greens are all having to find new leaders. We have an excellent leader in Tim Farron, who in spite of the lack of coverage in the press and TV, certainly mounted a strong campaign to remain in the EU and did not shy away from appearing on the same platform as other prominient Remain politicians of all parties. JOIN THE LIBDEMS

I wasn't talking about a coalition but a new party of the centre - not centre left!!

I Went to a Uni dance where Screaming Lord Such was performing ( leaping out of a coffin) but then he became disorientated ( off his head on drugs) and blundered about shouting, he got booed off the stage.

The way things are going, the old "Monster Raving Loony Party" could start to seem like an attractive option.

So not about a new Centre party at all, then.

So, have you gone off Corbyn now djen?

It's about a coalition in the national interest, taken from a longer article, which you probably have not read yet.

Sorry 'centre' party!

What's that got to do with a new centre left party?

"The task for the left in Britain now is to adapt to the new reality, and fast. The Labour right is already trying to pin the blame on Corbyn; UKIP will make a play for Labour’s voters. Most likely there’ll be a second independence referendum in Scotland.

Corbyn was right to try and fight on “remain and reform” but his proposed reforms were never radical enough. He was also right to devote energy to other issues — making the point that in or out of the EU, social justice and public services are under threat. But the right and centre of Labour then confused voters by parading along with the Tory centrists who Corbyn had promised never to stand on a platform with.

The Blairite Progress group is deluded if it thinks it can use this moment to launch a coup against Corbyn. The neoliberal wing of the Labour Party needs to realise — it may take them a few days — that their time is over.

Ultimately it looks like Labour still managed to get 2/3 of its voters to voter Remain [I’ll check this but that’s what YouGov said earlier]. So the major failure is Cameron’s. It looks like the Tory vote broke 60/40 to Brexit.

It’s possible Cameron will resign quickly. But that’s not the issue. The issue is the election and what to fight for."

This was written by Paul Mason while the count was still happening.

I agree Daphne but we stand little chance of getting PR before we have another general election. A new centre party however would be more easily organised.

A new centre party AND proportional representation

Backed by Paul Mason, too.

medium.com/mosquito-ridge/progrexit-a-5-point-plan-cf5984fccfc2#.wxhfswdu9