Blue sun, orange sky... something is not right

[steepholm]

So, should I never vote Lib Dem again because they threw in their lot with the Tories? Or never vote Labour again because they threw their toys out of the pram and chose opposition rather than a progressive coalition?

I'm rapidly ceasing to care, and wishing I'd stuck to my first best instincts and voted Green.

(Either way, I don't really share the disgust that many seem to feel at the sight of the various minority parties - i.e. all of them - negotiating their way to some kind of settlement behind closed doors. What else were they supposed to do?)

Comments

[lady-schrapnell.livejournal.com]

Of course, if the Labour party sees it as not being in its interests to govern, then that's fine, but they can't really expect me to vote for it on that basis!

If you and all the other people like you HAD voted for them, they wouldn't have been in the position of needing a less-than-stable coalition, squeaking through on rather low numbers! Your question was whether you should never vote for them in the future, because they'd thrown their toys out of the pram etc.

And I still think it's unfair, because the party didn't see it as not being in their interests to govern before getting this pretty awful election result, and presumably plan to regroup and come back in stronger position next election. It's probably too much to hope for that stronger position being a real Labour one, but who knows.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

If you and all the other people like you HAD voted for them, they wouldn't have been in the position of needing a less-than-stable coalition, squeaking through on rather low numbers!

It's always pesky when people don't vote the way you want them to, I guess. But from what you're saying it seems it's only reasonable to expect Labour to want to govern in the optimal circumstances, i.e. where their 30-40% or so of the vote results in a parliamentary majority. I disagree. If they were serious about not wanting a Tory government they had it in their power to prevent it. Of course a coalition with the LibDems and others would have been difficult, but it would have represented far more than 50% of the votes cast, and would have been perfectly legitimate, whatever the Murdoch press had to say. That they chose to let the Tories in makes them at least as culpable as the Lib Dems, in my view. Indeed, given that choice I don't see what else the Lib Dems could have done other than to throw in their lot with Cameron or force an immediate second election (which really wouldn't have been in the public interest).

All this is, of course, on the assumption that the stories about the Labour Party rebelling against the idea of coalition really is true, but I've heard nothing today to suggest otherwise.