8 Comments

• Foregone Conclusion 18th May '10 - 1:04pm

  Am I the only Liberal Democrat who found the whole Labservative idea pretty grating, and is glad to see it gone, for a couple of reasons:

  1) The idea that Labour and the Conservatives are exactly the same is just silly, and the election showed the profound philosophical differences between the two parties. It’s true that they share some things in common which we oppose, but then again, we’ve managed to find an unusual amount of shared ground with the Tories over the past week after slating them throughout the campaign!

  2) The idea that the last sixty-five years have just been one long ‘awful old politics’ marathon is similarly ridiculous, when you come to think abou it. Do we regret the foundation of the NHS, the abolition of rationing, the birth of the Open University, the introduction of consumer protection legislation, the curbing of trade union power under Thatcher, and the introduction of the Human Rights Act and the minimum wage? Of course not. And to go back to point one, most of these policies were introduced by one party or another with fierce opposition from their ‘Labservative’ counterpart. Historically, in fact, the Liberal Party positioned itself as an even-broker between extremes as much as a radical alternative to the two-party consensus.

  Still, it seems to have struck a chord with activists and at least some of the public, which I guess is why I’m a humble footsoldier and not a member of our PR department.

• Duncan 18th May '10 - 1:23pm

  @Foregone – Actually my concern wasn’t that the two big parties were the same it was that this was the worst time at which to make the point – for the 2010 election they were closer apart than they’d been since around 1996, mainly because it’s their spending policy they are most distinct on whereas attitudes towards crime, financial regulation, foreign policy except Europe and ‘political reform’ (or lack thereof) they are identical on. Between Blair swinging Labour to the right and Major having slowly been dragged towards… if not the left then spending and bureaucratic increases across the public sector there was almost nothing between them in 1997. But if all the chat’s about economic policy I don’t know the political playing-field was ready to hear the Labservative thing. It was funny enough but spending on billboards may have been a bit much. (I don’t imagine the party did any polling or focus group studies to find out if it was effective).

  Whoever was advising Nick in the debates also oversold the idea. After the public interest was aroused by the first debate we had a great opportunity to dominate on policy, whereas I fear this impression of the third debate is pretty accurate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7h9BbTYkgk

• Niklas Smith 18th May '10 - 6:53pm

  Stephen, have you ever thought of applying to work at the Private Eye? Your E. J. Thribb poem is fab!

• Jules Wright 18th May '10 - 7:51pm

  dear stephen,

  you look remarkably like a younger robin gibb. just thought i’d throw that in the mix.

• Andrew Duffield 18th May '10 - 7:57pm

  We’re all Libservatives now – Shirley?

• Pat Davey 18th May '10 - 11:07pm

  You should be writing for the BBC. You’re dead funny. Why don’t you submit some ideas to Radio Four – I’m sure they’d be interested.

• STEVE ALLISON 20th May '10 - 8:48am

  Surely it should be Conservative Liberal Democrat Collation Partners = CONOCRATS

• Terry Gilbert 22nd May '10 - 10:50am

  Another nomination for Lib Dem poet laureate, perhaps…