Politics

Okay, this is not supposed to be a political blog, but as the conference season is upon us once more, I feel the need to comment on something.
Comedians and commentators, when speaking about the Liberal Democrats, are constantly saying that they can have whatever policies they like - and it doesn't matter because they will never get elected.

On one hand, this has the appeal of being an easy joke on the Lib Dems, but on the other, it is an annoying self-fulfilling prophesy.
If everyone who likes their stance on politics or any of their policies actually votes for them irrespective of the results, they will become the opposition party and thence potentially become contenders for government. It is as simple as that and has been for twenty years.
But their opponents keep trotting out the same rubbish about them and people keep believing it. Think about how many times you have heard the following three arguments about them and then consider whether these are logical or even true:
1. They will never get elected.
2. They are wishy-washy and keep changing their mind
3. Their budget figures don't add up.

Our political system is basically flawed and ends up swinging from one unrepresentative majority to another, flipping between the conservatives and Labour parties every couple of terms. The big two would argue that proportional representation doesn't work and causes weak governments. Strong governments are better, surely? Well, no. A strong government that (ooh, I don't know) can force blatently unfair taxations upon us such as the Poll tax, or can take us into an illegal war, is not better.
And remember that in 1997 before winning the election, Labour were all for looking seriously into proportional representation.
Until of course they got into power with a huge majority and suddenly they weren't interested any more.
So, don't listen to the cliches and actually vote for the people you want to support and who you want to govern you. Nothing else matters.