Should you vote Liberal?

What a lovely man he sounds Varian. I was watching Nick Clegg's 2 May speech earlier and he is still so interesting and, dare I say, inspiring.

I was a founder member of the SDP (as was my father although neither of us knew the other had joined until the first meeting). I was part of the Steering Committee in our area and people had come from all sorts of political backgrounds and none. I found I could not join the amalgamated Lib Dems but I am still most comfortable with the politics in that area.

The disastrous election was as I should have said 2015, not 2010. I must use preview, sorry.

After living abroad we returned to the UK in the 1970s and moved to an area which was totally dominated by the Conservatives, who controlled every council and where anybody wearing a blue rosette could easily get elected to parliament.

The only party making any effort to challenge the Tories was the Liberal party. My husband had always been a Liberal but I had previously voted Labour. The Labour party was virtually non existant here so it was obvious to me that I should support the Liberals.

When the SDP was founded we met the local members with whom we formed an alliance before the parties merged to form the Liberal Democrats. I thought that the SDP members we met seemed to have just taken a bit longer than us to have reached the same conclusion. I voted SDP and we were very active in supporting the SDP candidate, although he was not elected. After a lot of success at council level we finally got our LibDem MP elected and re-elected several times until the disaster of 2010.

When I was telling ar the eldction on Thursday, I chatted to the Tory teller, an elderly gent, who told me that he thought the Liberal Democrats had put country before party when they went into the coalition and he fdlt so ashamed of the waythe Conservatives in 2015 that he had actually written a letter of apology to Nick Clegg. This old chap was obviously a decent fellow, but unfortunately still a Tory.

Thanks M0nica - your have certainly hung in there. I do feel the Social Democracy part of the Lib Dems is coming through a little more (well it suits me a little more) and they did a lot to hold back the worst of the Cons when in government with them.

GGMk2, the first election I voted in was in 1966. I voted Liberal in that election and have voted Liberal ever since, although not without considering all the alternatives each time and coming close to voting for one of them several times.

I joined the Liberal party in 1962 during my first year at university.

I think the media is making a mountain out of a mole hill, but I guess it's something to keep the gossip mongers occupied.

It's a plum job for Burnham. Manchester is a great city - mainly Remain and very Labour. I hope he makes it greater.

It has been said that he will start on Monday to do something about homelessness in Manchester. That will be brilliant.

While we are talking about Burnham,

www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/may/06/andy-burnham-denies-jeremy-corbyn-snub-manchester-rally

It's too early to know what Burnham will do in Manchester. It has a diverse population with more people than some small countries. It's not going to be a job for the faint-hearted, but it would be good to see Manchester as genuine competition for London.

PS. The People's History Museum in Manchester is worth visiting.

An interesting article here about Andy Burnham.

theconversation.com/why-andy-burnhams-manchester-could-change-the-face-of-uk-politics-77258

The figure is just a coincidence.

I agree that £6bn is only a start, but it would represent approximately a 5% increase.

I'm not sure what the population of Greater Manchester is, but it's something just less than three million, which is approximately 5% of the population of the UK. That's probably why the figures are the same.

No, but it just seems strange that the Libdem amount is the same as the amount that Andy Burnham is in charge of just for the Manchester area, just for the health and social care bit of his budget.
It doesn't add up.
An extra six billion for 66 million population is less than £100 per person for the whole of the health and social care budget. I think it's in a bigger mess than that.

The mayor of Manchester could make a difference, because Manchester has devolved funding. Of course, Burnham needs to fight his case, to make sure the formula for funding is fair and doesn't just shift the blame to him, if things go wrong.

He's already getting criticism for being a "Blairite" and caring only for his own career - and, of course, for being a Scouser!

I hope he does a good job, because I'm very fond of Manchester - the home of liberalism in the UK .

PS. That's why I chuckle to myself when posters, some of whom appear before every election on sites such as GN, accuse me of being a hard-line leftwinger or Corbynite.

I could be persuaded to vote Labour or Green, if a tactical vote mattered, because there's an overlap between LD and some Green and Labour policies.

I'm with you MOnica. Apart from the 2015 GE, I've always voted LD (and Liberal before that), because I'm liberal (with a small l) to the core and believe in their values. My vote has never mattered, by I suppose there's a little satisfaction from knowing that the total figures would have been one less, if I hadn't voted.

I'm absolutely sure I quoted the figure correctly. The LD proposed tax rise has nothing to do with Manchester. Why should it?

"We’ve had a breakthrough! Labour are now talking about supporting Proportional Representation in their election manifesto. If they did, it would mean every major party except the Conservatives are committed to fair votes."

From www.makevotesmatter.org.uk

The metro mayor in the north east is one who goes round and round in circles on a train.

Lots of cities have mayors. The metro mayor in the North East would have taken in all of Durham, Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland, and Northumberland as well as North and South Tyneside.
There already is a North East combined Authority.

I thought that those who turned mayors down were turning down a different sort of mayor and the Metro Mayors (do not listen to the news quiz as all I think of with Metro Mayors now is Mayors who moisturise ) are coming in for those areas next year - but I really don't know.

I think this is a good position for Andy Burnham.

"The north-east, centred around Tyne and Wear, refused the mayoral offer. So no deal. In Whitehall jargon, the deals are “bespoke” – in short, varying in significant details – with Greater Manchester getting responsibility for a £6bn budget to integrate health and social care. Interestingly, Andy Burnham, the former Labour minister and favourite to become the Greater Manchester mayor, opposed the package when shadow health minister on the logical grounds that it might both presage the end of a truly national NHS while, handily, making the new authority shoulder the blame for future (government-imposed) cutbacks. And there’s the rub."

The Guardian - with a bit of Hamlet at the end.

Daphne, Andy Burnham will be in charge of Manchester's health and social care budget of £6 billion.
Are you sure you got that figure right?

Good statement M0nica.

I could not vote Lib Dem in the local elections as sadly there wasn't one standing. I wonder how many seats they will be able to stand in for the GE.

Just a point of fact M0nica. I know we have some very young Grans but wouldn't you have been voting Liberal at the beginning of your voting history. Not meaning to be contentious - just interested.

Whoops, lots of posts since I started to write the above when the statement of The Liberal Democrat approach was posted by Varian, that is what my opener 'This statement' refers to

This statement is why I have been a member of the Lib Dems and voted Lib Dem since I first got the vote.

At various times I have considered changing my political allegiance and even voting for another party, when it could help get rid of a worse government.But in the end I always come back to the core principles underlying Liberalism.

Its freedom from dogma and the openness to all possible solutions to a problem that this gives and its commitment to being open to those living beyond our borders.

I am not a 'my party, right or wrong' zealot. I have, at times, disagreed profoundly with some aspects of Liberal policy and I believe they made some serious mistakes when in coalition with the Conservatives.

When voting it has often been a case of: 'if you know a better hole go there' and on examining them the other holes are always worse.

I agree Daphne - I would even be happy with a hypothecated tax - but noticeably the Tories have come out and said that this is just what they have been saying - vote for anyone other than the Cons and you will be paying higher taxes.

The obvious corollary to that is the Tories are promising no raising of taxes at all - which means CUTS if they are to achieve their professed aims. That's our PENSIONS folks and many other benefits including any CARE we and our loved ones may need.