For as long as I can remember the Liberals and then the Liberal Democrats have been the “none of the above” Party. When the thought of voting for Labour or the Tories gets so bad, you can always park your vote with the so-called centre party. Their electoral successes have been varied but the most telling must have been the 8 seats Nick Cleggover managed in 2015.
The Liberal Party emerged in 1859 from the residue of the Whig Party, some free traders and some who had a certain point of view on the impenetrable Irish Home Rule question. It was reasonably successful until 1922 when Lloyd George was consigned to the dustbin. He had led a hostile takeover of the party in 1916 when Asquith was faltering. It might be worth pointing out that during the Napoleonic Wars the Whigs were perpetually whingeing about the cost and always wanted to stop spending. Boney was out to get us but they did not care or so it appeared. Since 1922 their electoral performance has been mostly abysmal.
This demise continued off the back of 5 years in coalition with the Tories when some sacred cows were shot down, not the least of the was abolishing tuition fees – something they failed to achieve even though the promise had been written in blood. The students are not a forgiving bunch especially when it comes to their own wallets.
Their greatest hobby horse since the 1920s has been proportional representation. They are desperate for this because with PR no party is ever likely to get a working majority and there would always be a coalition of the LibDems with either Labour or the Tories. So deep are their feelings for this they demanded and got a referendum during their time in coalition. They failed dismally and Cleggover almost spat his dummy out and left the coalition. It seems the voters had sussed this out and the thought of permanent coalitions did not appeal. I think it did not really matter which type of PR it would be, all would result in the LibDems being permanently in government to the detriment of the country.
The charge of sexual deviance has long dogged our yellow rosette friends. I can remember in the 1970s hearing the refrain “Join the Liberals and widen the circle of your friends”. With alumni such as Jeremy Thorpe, Cyril Smith and Mark Oaten it is no wonder the label stuck. These days they all seem to be on the odd side to me though we should always keep David Lloyd George in our thoughts. Not only was he alleged to be a prolific swordsman, supposedly every child he ever met he patted on the head just in case, he was also selling peerages via the weirdly named Maundy Thursday.
Hypocrisy is nothing new in British politics, you could be forgiven for thinking it is a pre-requisite to be selected as a candidate. The present leader of the LibDums, the clown who goes by the name of Ed Davey, could probably be sectioned with little effort on our part. His performance in the 2024 general election was astounding. It consisted mainly of him “doing things”. Jumping up and down, falling off a jet ski, acting the clown and so on. Most undignified.
He was heavily involved in the postmaster/Fujitsi scandal. Not only was he the responsible minister for some of the time, he was paid something in the region of a quarter of a million by the firm of solicitors who were prosecuting the unfortunate postmasters leading to some of them committing suicide. Yet he carries on as if nothing had ever happened. A despicable man at best.
His latest gimmick is to pretend that he has some kind of power. He produced a list of commitments and targets as though he has some power to do anything about them. If you haven’t seen it these are
- Guaranteeing a doctor’s appointment within 7 days or 24 hours if urgent.
- Scrapping the big Pharma deal with the US where our prices have gone up and directing any saving to rNHS ending corridor care and so on.
- A fully costed plan (where have we heard that before) to invest in hospitals, social care and support for family carers (incidentally a big scam in the welfare system exploited by some).He claims this could free up around 6,000 hospital beds.
- A new legal duty to limit the time spent waiting in A&E.
Admirable ideals you might say but he is not in a position to implement any of them and is unlikely ever to be so. Should he ever attain power he is likely to be just as useless as the rest of the charlatans who have poked their nose into our health service.
As for their general direction I would say it has gone further and further left as the years go by. Even the communists would blush at some of their proposals. In the unlikely event that Reform do change the face of British politics, that is looking less and less likely as the likes of Nadhim Zahawi are accepted into Reform’s ranks, would it be too much to hope that all 3 of the LibLabCon mafia disappear without trace.
© well_chuffed 2026
