Liberal Democrats

Jo Swinson has written to Her Majesty to ask for a meeting, in the wake of the government revealing its intention to suspend parliament.

Swinson said: "I've written to the Queen to express my concern at Boris Johnson's anti-democratic plan to shut down parliament, and to request an urgent meeting.

"This is a crucial time in our country's history, and yet our prime minister is arrogantly attempting to force through a no-deal Brexit against the democratic will.

"He is outrageously stifling the voices of both the people and their representatives.

"It is appalling that the prime minister has forced opposition leaders into taking this action.

"However, we must take all measures necessary to avoid a disastrous no-deal Brexit, for which there is no mandate."

Boris Johnson is proroguing Parliament to try & force through No Deal. He is a coward. He doesn't believe that he can command control of the Commons & this is his only way to get what he wants - @LaylaMoran

twitter.com/LibDems

Yes, we do all take a different view POGS.

Fake news appears to have been fabricated by the dirty tricks department of the brexit brigade

fullfact.org/news/article-about-leaked-lib-dem-emails-fake/

Each political party contains members with a range of views. They will never all agree on every policy but can broadly agree on the general direction.

In the last few years the Conservative Party has moved sharply to the right to compete with Farage just as the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn has moved sharply to the left.

This has left moderate MPs in both parties feeling very uncomfortable but most still retain a strong feeling of loyalty to the party they may have belonged to for most of their life. Each MP has to decide when the point comes that they can no longer tolerate the drastic shift to the extreme which they witness in their party and at the point when their continued membership becomes intolerable they leave, as happened earlier this year with Sarah Woolaston, Chukka Umunna and others.

Many of us would have liked them all to have joined the Liberal Democrats at that point as they seemed to agree with LibDem policies, but they chose for a while to be part of a new group, until they realised that they should not at this crucial time, be fragmenting the support for the centre/ centre left. Those who have now decided to join the LibDems have been made very welcome.

Under FPTP it is very difficult for small parties to survive. If we had PR, I think it likely that both the Conservative and Labour Parties would fragment, which is one of the reasons they continue to oppose electoral reform.

Varian

" It makes sense for politicians to belong to a party which has agreed policies but they are also indivdiuals, who appeal to voters as real people."
--

The key words here are ' shared policies'.

That is the point I have been making. MP's such as Sarah Wollaston, Chuka Umuna, Anna Soubry, Chris Lesley et al stood on a Party ticket, Party manifesto, used Party funding and Party campaign support because they were deemed to 'share the politicies ' of the respective Party they were happy to represent.

Candidates owe it to their constituency electorate to be principled enough to not stand on a party ticket if they do not agree with ' the policies' of the party they are campaigning for and if they quit the party they should have a by-election to let their constituency decide whether or not they still want them to represent them.

That is why we have Independent candidates for those who are principled and will not gain the position of MP on false pretences and if and when they win they truly have won as an ' individual'.

Wollaston and Umuna have now represented their constituents by proporting to agree with ' the policies' of 3 different parties '3'. Their constituents have no right of recall and they give their constituents no right of recall yet they have a common denominator there MUST BE ' 2nd Referendum/ Peoples Vote' because the circumstances have changed.

Hypocrites, self important, unprincipled to some to others principled and brave.

We all take a different view I guess.

It makes sense for politicians to belong to a party which has agreed policies but they are also indivdiuals, who appeal to voters as real people.

POGS totally agree ??????

By - elections not Bi- elections.

Funny old game politics.

If the voter does not vote for a political party but always for the individual how does that work for those who canvass on behalf of him/her thinking / believing their hard work and effort campaigning for that individual is on behalf of the party they are promoting.?

The candidate should stand as an Independent and not take the proverbial out of both his / her constituents and his / her party members/organisation.
----

If the voter does not vote for a political party but always for the individual how does that work for those who advocate ' tactical voting'?

Lord knows we see posters even on gransnet advocating ' tactical voting'. That is because they believe the voter is voting for a political party, not the individual obviously.

As for Churchill I care not a jot because to me it is a lack of ' principle' and not political point scoring I am interested in. There are now so many constituencies that have MP's who have quit their party I repeat my point I think Parliament will in time revisit the reason why constituents should be given the opportunity of a bi-election.

It also means that you don't have to be stinking rich to become an MP and pay for all the election leaflets and canvassers, etc.

MPs representing their parties is a convention, not a rule. The whole party system was developed to make it easier for a government (i.e the party able to command a majority in the HOC) to get its legislation enacted.

As the UK doesn't have a written constitution, it really isn't true that MPs only represent their parties.

They are free to change parties, as Winston Churchill did from Conservative to Liberal and back to Conservative. As a Conservative MP, he frequently rebelled and voted against his own party.

Churchill only became Prime Minister because Attlee refused to serve in a government headed by Chamberlain, so a compromise PM was sought.

Nobody ever voted for the wartime coalition government. A number of the leading figures weren't even MPs, but were members of the House of Lords.

I'm afraid talk about what's constitutional or not is nonsensical.

Concur GG13 SW and Pogs What would be the point of voting for someone in name only - it's the party that is voted for, nothing else.

When an MP switches parties mid Parliamentary term, it should be law that a by election has to be called. When the two Tories ( Carswell and Reckless) left to join UKIP, please note, they immediately stood down and were re-elected in a by election for the different party. Anyone who doesn't do this is a liar and a coward.

POGS suziewoozie I totally agree MPs stand as a representative of a political party and its manifesto or they stand as an independent.

I’m with you on this POGS. Party members work very hard to help MPs get elected and in marginal constituencies that’s always very true. The MPs ‘owe’ them and the people who voted for them. DH asked me today how many Lib Dem MPs there are and I said ‘as elected or as in I just changed my mind?’

Monica

I strongly disagree.

If a candidate did not want to be associated with a political party, stand on a party manifesto, campaign on party lines they should stand as an Independent, which obviously some do.

MP's who have been content to be associated with, fought for a political party, campaigned for a political party , stood on a party manifesto and quit should in principle be second to the electorate who should take precident over the MP and the constituency should have the right to make their choice if they want that MP to still represent the constituency or not.

Each to his her own opinion I guess.

This is not a bias political issue and I think the high volume of MP's who are now sitting as Independents will eventually force Parliament to revisit the reasons for calling a bi-election.

In this country MPs are not voted for on a party ticket. They stand and are voted for on a personal basis. It is only recently that any party affiliation has been included on the ballot paper.

To expect MPs who change their affiliation to stand for re-election is to insult the electorate. Presumably they knew what their MP's personal attitudes and opinions were when they elected, whatever party they were signed up to, and an MP rarely changes their personal political beliefs when they change parties, just the party they do it within.

If it is true that people vote only for a party regardless of anything else, we might as well suspend Parliament as soon as possible and replace all the candidates with donkeys, who will say 'Yeigh--h-h-h' or 'Neigh-h-h-h-' at their owners command.

All MP's who quit their party should allow their constituents to vote on whether or not they still want them to serve as their MP.

The hypocrisy of MP's such as Woolaston is loud and clear.

They demand a 2nd Refendum vote spouting ' the times have changed since the last Referendum' but the ' times have changed because of their quitting the party they were elected on'. too!

Do as I say not do as I do.

Varian if she gets re-elected as a Lib Dem that's fair.

I just believe that if any politician changes parties mid-term there should automatically be a bi-election, as many voters put their X in the box of the party not even knowing who their local MP is - "tribal politics".

We will find out what her constituents think when we get I general election. By all accounts Sarah Woolaston is a popular constituency MP, who has also done well as Chairman of the Health Select Committee. Totnes is a Liberal area so I think it very likely that she would be re-elected with an increased majority.

Sarah Woolaston stood for election as a Conservative to deliver Brexit.........moved to Change UK...........moved to Lib Dems, I wonder what her constituents think???

eesybee how does changing your party in a consistent direction over a year compare with voting against the party you are in over 400 times?

Grany

Pogs Lib Dems
why don't they stop a no deal Brexit, all parties backing Labour to stop this happening? Or a no deal Brexit will happen.
-

I am not a Lib Dem supporter but they should be given credit for being the party that has tried to stop a No Deal Brexit, they have gone further and stated they want nothing but to REMAIN!

What does Corbyn/Labour offer the Lib Dems.?

Labour and it's supporters do not know if Labour is a party of Remain or Leave, at least I have never had a response to that question that cannot be picked holes with.

You cannot expect parties to agree if they do not hold the same principle if the sole reason for uniting is to Stop Brexit, full stop, no ifs no buts.