tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4169740113013066976.post9153570122549134546..comments2024-02-10T12:12:06.028+00:00Comments on The Real Blog: I was wrong three times over about the leaders' debateDavid Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11410159311875228620noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4169740113013066976.post-84671835258322270012015-04-05T21:33:48.967+01:002015-04-05T21:33:48.967+01:00Have to agree with David (Evans). Ed Miliband isn&...Have to agree with David (Evans). Ed Miliband isn't exactly pulling off a radical turnaround, but he's probably doing just well enough to delay the vaunted "crossover" in the polls and offset the occasional slight, inevitable gaffe, as this SNP-memo business might turn out to be.<br /><br />As someone who's not a Lib Dem member, but did vote Lib Dem in 2010, I'm not even remotely convinced by the current pitch. It might be realistic to acknowledge coalition, but all Clegg's offering is either a less-Labour Labour government or a less-Tory Conservative government, and the best move to avoid either of those is to vote Tory or Labour (respectively) in the first place, not LD. The Lib Dems shouldn't exist just to be an adjunct to other parties, as is being implied. <br /><br />And the breezy insistence about outperforming the polls on election night, and how Clegg'll retain Sheffield Hallam <i>easy</i>, smacks of delusion, not confidence. It's neck-and-neck in a seat the central Labour office are barely lifting a finger for.<br /><br />That said, for the Tories to be on 16% in Sheffield Hallam should bother them too, given that it's the Toryest of seats outside London. The fact that it doesn't speaks volumes.Lidl Janusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4169740113013066976.post-31640679444308696462015-04-03T14:45:30.868+01:002015-04-03T14:45:30.868+01:00Sadly, I fear you are clutching at illusory straws...Sadly, I fear you are clutching at illusory straws. Ed Milliband’s persona may collapse in the way you envisage, but only David Cameron will gain and any expectation that Nick’s performance will do anything for us across the country is a dream. No one trusts him, Scotland will not, and possibly will never, forgive him or us, and we are heading for less than 5% across much of the country.<br /><br />We were a force for good, with local activists, hands on power in quite a number of councils and a chance to show what Liberal Democracy could do in Westminster, and Nick Clegg threw it away. He has destroyed our party for at least a generation and given the Tories, UKIP and the SNP a chance they would never have even dreamed of before he became leader. A second term for the Tories, third place in terms of votes for UKIP and third place in seats for the SNP, all three of these could occur, but even if it was only one, it should be enough to damn Nick Clegg. However his destruction of our party across most of the UK has done that already.David Evanshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09616555999475880783noreply@blogger.com