In Gosport, two Labour Party stalwarts – Mervin Bradley and Paul Keeley – have joined the Liberal Democrats and are standing in May’s elections, along with the area’s former UKIP Parliamentary candidate, John Bowles. Meanwhile, in Shropshire Cllr David Gibbon has switched from the Liberal Democrats to the Conservatives.
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10 Comments
UKIP to Lib Dem? How very odd. Dustbin party?
Justin
Paul on the road to Damascus behaved unusually, not oddly.
It’s possible to be anti-EU and still a loyal Liberal Democrat.
Isn’t it ????
I b****y well hope so or I’ve been in the wrong party for 30 years.
Yes Crewegwyn it is ok.
But you were never in UKIP Gywn 🙂
It’s a bit hard to equate membership of UKIP (5 year immigration freeze, scrap the Human Rights Act and say no to green taxes and wind farms) as being consistent with the values of the Liberal Democrats but people sometimes have very odd views
Only 30 years Crewegwyn?
I voted against joining the Common Market at the 1961 Liberal Assembly in Edinburgh, and in the Referendum.
Timberwolf
Yes, only 30 years I’m afraid.
They wouldn’t let me speak at the 1961 Assembly – probably because I was only four years old !!!!
As Brendan Behan memorably recorded:
In a rural Irish bar men were reminiscing about the Easter Rising. “What did you do in ’16” asked one.
“I wasn’t born in ’16” came the reply.
“Tsk, always some excuse”
Crewegwyn
Then you probably don’t remember Oliver Smedley, PPC for Saffron Walden, and the Keep Britain Out campaign. I’ve still got one of Oliver Smedley’s pamphlets somewhere.
Perhaps Stephen could find someone to write a piece explaining to Lib Dem folk why their party is chief cheerleader for an EU that is neither liberal or democratic.
It’s way too clever for me!
The Liberal Democrats are internationalists. You can be in favour of the EU or the United Nations, but that does not mean you do not think substantial changes need to be made in the organisation.
The majority of the Liberals saw the Common Market as a first step towards Free Trade. The minority saw it as a Customs Union, and a first and last step towards Free trade. Who was right?