Going well…

[Protheroe]

And whether you like it or not we are a long way off a general election.

I await the inevitable leadership contest in the meantime. I may even join the Labour Party to vote in it

Who would you vote for Dekka?

[Fido]

Doesn't the fact that the 2 main parties being unpalatable is resulting in many people shifting significantly to the right (Reform) rather than the left (Greens) actually suggest that at least tacit racism is widespread, and too many people are clinging to the pathetic lies and fallacy of Brexit. Does the extent of both of these override being able to see Reform for the clownshow that it is, and Farage for the charlatan that he is (nothing having been learned in 10+ years of him)?

Isn't it also time that the Lib Dems were more widely forgiven for entering into a coalition goct with the Tories?

One thing I've really not been able to understand is why when the two main parties are in such an utter mess that the Lib Dems are not more visible and vocal. They either have 1) shit marketing people 2) aren't well-connected in media circles or 3) don't have any solutions to the main woes.

[Protheroe]

Doesn't the fact that the 2 main parties being unpalatable is resulting in many people shifting significantly to the right (Reform) rather than the left (Greens) actually suggest that at least tacit racism is widespread, and too many people are clinging to the pathetic lies and fallacy of Brexit. Does the extent of both of these override being able to see Reform for the clownshow that it is, and Farage for the charlatan that he is (nothing having been learned in 10+ years of him)?

Isn't it also time that the Lib Dems were more widely forgiven for entering into a coalition goct with the Tories?

One thing I've really not been able to understand is why when the two main parties are in such an utter mess that the Lib Dems are not more visible and vocal. They either have 1) shit marketing people 2) aren't well-connected in media circles or 3) don't have any solutions to the main woes.

They have no distinctive answers to the fundamental problems facing us either Fido.

[Borin' Baggie]

Doesn't the fact that the 2 main parties being unpalatable is resulting in many people shifting significantly to the right (Reform) rather than the left (Greens) actually suggest that at least tacit racism is widespread, and too many people are clinging to the pathetic lies and fallacy of Brexit. Does the extent of both of these override being able to see Reform for the clownshow that it is, and Farage for the charlatan that he is (nothing having been learned in 10+ years of him)?

Isn't it also time that the Lib Dems were more widely forgiven for entering into a coalition goct with the Tories?

One thing I've really not been able to understand is why when the two main parties are in such an utter mess that the Lib Dems are not more visible and vocal. They either have 1) shit marketing people 2) aren't well-connected in media circles or 3) don't have any solutions to the main woes.

They have no distinctive answers to the fundamental problems facing us either Fido.

Accelerate the social care review to ensure its conclusions can be implemented within this parliamentary term with a cross-party consensus to address the burden on hospital care and local council budgets.

Abolish business rates and non-residential SDLT and replace them with a land value tax to reduce the burden on the hospitality business and promote investment into commercial property development (which I'm sure you'd love).

Let asylum seekers work during their asylum claim so they're not loitering around doing nothing while in receipt of public funds.

Phase out the renewable obligation as it's outdated and adding costs the energy bills that the CfDs that have replaced them aren't. 

Investment into youth work initiatives to help build soft and hard skills for young people as they have been cut since 2015 despite evidence showing between 300% and 600% returns through the opportunities provided helping reduce the burden on the state.

Review of the application of magistrates and crown courts to help close the court backlog.

Build 150k social homes a year with the help of modular homes/prefabs to address the scale needed. Substantially cut planning regulations for self-builds to help promote the growth of SMEs.

Rejoin the single market to cut trade barriers with the EU and EFTA.

Cut employers NI and introduce economic incentives for investment into SMEs using the same principle as the Pupil Premium.

If there's one thing you cannot criticise the Lib Dems for it's policy forming, they cannot simultaneously be a policy vacuum and a think tank in the suit of a political party. And I have not heard or read anything in the press outside the Economist and FT on any of this.

[Protheroe]

Where will the Lib Dems radically reform the state? Where will they cut spending? Or where will they increase taxes?

Everything else is deckchair reorganisation.

[Borin' Baggie]

Abolition of business rates and non-residential SDLT and replacing it with a land value tax would be the biggest biggest reform of tax in this country since the LVT was abandoned in the 1920s. It would also establish a basis for how to expand it into residential property.

The social homes and youth skills policy is also there to literally cut the benefits bill by reducing the need for spending on housing benefit and universal credit, same with the asylum seekers in work policy. Not everything has to be a stick when you can offer carrots.

[man in the corner shop]

The grown ups and go centrist dads doing their thing.

Brutal new MRP poll out today showing Reform at 311 and Labour support collapsing.

Worth reading steaming @financialtimes.com column on Starmer by @robertshrimsley.bsky.social

“Starmer can’t afford to wait for reckless Reform to implode”

https://on.ft.com/3VxxCaR

[Protheroe]

Good article. He's right that we're at an inflection point equally as great as 1979.

Best description of Andy Burnham I've read this week "the Manchester mayor, popping up, as so often, like a hopeful beneficiary at a deathbed."

[Jacko]

The grown ups and go centrist dads doing their thing.

Brutal new MRP poll out today showing Reform at 311 and Labour support collapsing.

Worth reading steaming @financialtimes.com column on Starmer by @robertshrimsley.bsky.social

“Starmer can’t afford to wait for reckless Reform to implode”

https://on.ft.com/3VxxCaR

Can't be true, the experts on here said their vote would be spread too thin for anything more than a hung parliament...

Now about these grown-ups, how's that all going?

[Shabby Russian]

Doesn't the fact that the 2 main parties being unpalatable is resulting in many people shifting significantly to the right (Reform) rather than the left (Greens) actually suggest that at least tacit racism is widespread, and too many people are clinging to the pathetic lies and fallacy of Brexit. Does the extent of both of these override being able to see Reform for the clownshow that it is, and Farage for the charlatan that he is (nothing having been learned in 10+ years of him)?

Isn't it also time that the Lib Dems were more widely forgiven for entering into a coalition goct with the Tories?

One thing I've really not been able to understand is why when the two main parties are in such an utter mess that the Lib Dems are not more visible and vocal. They either have 1) shit marketing people 2) aren't well-connected in media circles or 3) don't have any solutions to the main woes.

They have no distinctive answers to the fundamental problems facing us either Fido.

But what they do have is more mps than they ever had before.

And that figure will only increase at the next GE as the Conservative Party continue their long journey to irrelevance.