New Liberal Democrat Leader

Jo Swinson ....waste of space,told blatant lies oon TV the other day and refuses to acknowledge them even though the director of Education has given here the true figures ...a typical politician she just wants to do the" everybody else is rubbish and I can save you thing.We remember her voting record and its not pleasant reading .

Are you a Lib Dem activist using Gransnet as a tool to garner members Varian......because it certainly looks that way.

the Tories, whose members are so far removed from the general population

Varian, what a strange and outdated notion. Do you really believe that? On which planet do you live? Does it comfort you to think of Tories as landowners who go shootin' and fishin'? Get with the programme!

Factory workers, shopkeepers, bus drivers, nurses, teachers, doctors, students,hairdressers, etc, etc, etc - people from all walks of life vote for the Conservative Party and have for some time, given Labour no longer has a function as it does not represent the working classes any longer.

"I'm not sure why those who have never voted LibDem need bother posting here. For those who have supported the party, but never considered joining here are some of the benefits of membership"
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Dear lord Varian, if you follow your own logic why do you post on threads about Labour/Conservatives ?

Who ever becomes the new Lib Dem Leader they will I have no doubt have to form a Coalition or get Supply and Confidence with other parties.

What Irony.

I did watch Jo Swinson the other day and the subject was going green , use of plastics etc. She made me have a wry smile when at the end of her the Lib Dems are the Party for protection of the planet kind of rhetoric she said she was a new mum I won't stop using baby wet wipes. Hmm

I think Layla Moran if she has her name down would dominate the others, very confident in her abilities if I am putting it politely.


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day6 varian was talking about Conservative party members not being representative ( not the voters). The members are overwhelmingly over 55, male, white, live in the shires i.e. not representative.
Do keep up.

The Lib Dems are a party for people with no conviction. The Lib Dems are destroying Britain and keeping Britain in this mire of stagnancy. Britain will remain a second rate country until it gets a true leader of the Donald Trump/Thatcher ilk. I hated Thatcher but I am talking about leadership, not just who is the PM? The strength of the UK parliamentary system comes from strong opposition - holding the government to account. Lib Dems are middle road walkers ... a path to nowhere. They stand for nothing of conviction and thus take Britain further down to being a second rate country.

Forgive me but wouldn’t it be simple to join the Conservative party to make it more representative?
Maybe that’s the solution?!

Conservative members are “a breed apart” from members of the other main political parties, with much stronger tendencies towards socially illiberal and authoritarian attitudes and completely different views on Brexit, a study has found.

The biggest ever polling of party members’ opinions shows that Tories are half as likely to support gay marriage as members of Labour, the Lib Dems or the SNP and significantly more supportive of the death penalty, obedience to authority and censorship of the media “to uphold moral standards”.

The findings by academics at Queen Mary University of London could spell trouble for the chances of a more socially liberal candidate such as Ruth Davidson succeeding Theresa May as Tory leader, given that the final choice is made in a vote of party members.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jan/04/tory-members-a-breed-apart-from-other-main-parties-study-finds

varian

I tried to keep to the question in your OP

Who do you as a Lib Dem supporter think is the best candidate.?

The choice will be made in a secret ballot of all the 100,000 or so Liberal Democrat members.

There are two excellent candidates - Jo Swinson and Ed Davey, either of whom I would be happy to support.

As far as I know, none of the other MPs will be declaring which candidate they support. There will be a number of hustings events around the country and I will decide who I vote for after that.

Lib dems along with Tories voted in the Health and Social Care Act 2012 NHS to be offered for up to privatisation

Only Labour will save our NHS

How could anyone possibly claim that the 100,000 or so Tory Party members who will be in a position to chose yet another unelected Prime Minister, are in any way representative of the general population?

Possibly because the majority of those who voted in the last three elections, voted for the Tories who have been in government since 2010? Although the Lib Dems were in coalition, they were more Torylite.
Could that be an indication?

The next Leader of the Liberal Democrats will be chosen by 100,000 or so Party members, but will not automatically become PM. That decision should belong to the electorate.
varian Are you saying that, in the unlikely event the Lib Dems would win a General Election, voted in by a majority who would like to see them in power, their leader would not automatically become Prime Minister - there would have to be a referendum to decide who, amongst all the Liberal Democrat MPs, should become the PM?

Because that is what it sounds like

It is normal for a party leader to be chosen before a general election, not for a Prime Minister to be put in place by a small unrepresentative group. This will be the second time this has happened since 2015.

The leader of the party who wins a general election becomes PM with the support of millions of voters. If we replaced the undemocratic FPTP voting system with proportional representation, the PM would either have to command a majority of votes or be able to put together a coalition supported by the majority of voters.

That would be democracy. What we have now is what was termed by Lord Hailsham "elective dictatorship". It has not served our country well in normal times and it is outrageously undemocratic at the present time.

"The Lib Dems are a party for people with no conviction. The Lib Dems are destroying Britain and keeping Britain in this mire of stagnancy." according to Johno who wants this country to be led by someone like Trump.

The Liberal Democrats have very strong convictions. The party exists to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.

Sir Vince said the new leader needed to continue "the battle to stop Brexit", and to seize "the opportunity created by the conflict and decay within the two main parties to build a powerful, liberal, green, and social democratic force in the centre ground of British politics".

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48403038

Nominations in the race to become the next Lib Dem leader close on Friday at 16:00 BST. So far two candidates have announced their intention to run - deputy leader Jo Swinson and former Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey.

The winner will be decided by a postal ballot of party members and the results are due to be announced on 23 July.

I have only heard Jo Swinson, a no from me

The new leader will be chosen by a secret ballot of members of the Liberal Democrats .

I may be wrong Anniebach, but I did not think you were a member. I think you said that you had resigned your membership of the Labour Party after fifty years because you have such a low opinion of Jeremy Corbyn.

I hope that when our new leader is elected everyone will get to hear a lot more about the LibDems and then perhaps when you next get the opportunity to vote in an election, you will no longer be politically homeless.

I think it's quite shocking to think that the next Tory leader - and our political future - are in the hands of some 100,000 people who are Conservative Party memebers - how can this possibly be allowed?????

Yes varian I left the Labour Party after over 50 years, does this prevent me from supporting another party ? Do you want new members/voters to be political Virgins ?

We may have a bi election here, the Libs are hopeful, it will be the usual, Tory, Lib, Labour. I have been invited to join the Libs, your post has settled it for me.

I am sure you will be very welcome in the LibDems, Anniebach. We have many members who left other parties and your political knowledge and campaigning experience would be much appreciated.

It is not unusual, varian

Half of Prime Ministers over the last 100 years took office in this way.

Ed Davey.

I remember when Ed Davey was the Lib Dem Foreign Affairs spokesman in 2008 and he was suspended from Parliament for repeatedly trying to raise a point of order concerning the UK/EU membership and a Referendum. The other Lib Dem MP's followed him out the door in solidarity.

That was at a time the Lib Dems were actively trying to get a Referendum on our EU Membership. Given what we know of the Lib Dem policy to not accept the EU Referendum result in 2016 I wonder now if they would have ever accepted the democratic decision of the result had it not gone there way back in 2008, who knows?

Ed Davey said this:-

Mr. Edward Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD): On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

Will the Chair reconsider the decision not to select the Liberal Democrat amendment for a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU? That is the question that goes to the heart of the debate before the House. That is the debate that people want to hear. We are being gagged, Sir.
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Conservative members are “a breed apart” from members of the other main political parties, with much stronger tendencies towards socially illiberal and authoritarian attitudes and completely different views on Brexit, a study has found.

As usual, offensive, illiberal and extremely immature statements from Varian.
A very poor advertisement for her party.