Who do YOU believe ?

[Papaumau]

As the two biggies have lied to us time and time again and they have seldom lived up to their own hype, if we make a serious attempt to remember all of the bad as well as the few good things that these two have done in our names over the past twenty-odd years surely we are not going to let any of this two back in again.

Do you not agree that they have had their chances to get things right over these years in power and that they have failed us time and time again ?

If this IS the case and the great mass of the electorate still believe in democracy and still believe that our votes count for something, surely it is time to give the other mob a try ?

Yes, I am talking about the Liberal Democrats again !

OK...many of you are still of the opinion that "Liberalism" is a weak or soft option and because of this hangup that you have many of you will stubbornly either refuse to give this "third way" ( as I keep harping on about ), a chance or you will throw your vote away by supporting one of the extremist parties.

I have had a lot of time to think about this stuff over the past few years and I have come to the conclusion that we MUST at least give the Lib' Dem's a chance to show us what they can do.

Every vote that is given to them means that they are more and more likely to get enough seats to direct the power-plays that will almost certainly come about even if they do not get enough seats to have a full working majority.

All I ask is that you give these thoughtful people a chance to say what they stand for so that you can go to the polls on May 6th with half an idea about what you want to happen in the future. I do not think that MORE OF THE SAME is an option, DO YOU ?

NB....

As I am not allowed to write HTML code here I cannot let you see the Liberal Democrat video-viewer on these pages. The best way that I can direct you to the recorded and itemised LIVE Lib' Dem' manifesto is to give you a link here to my own forum so that you can use the autoviewer there to your heart's content.

After hearing what Nick Clegg has to say on the main subjects you can come back here and discuss this "vision of the future" of his.

Here is the link: http://rippedoffbritain.forumotion.net/the-off-topic-chat-lounge-f6/view-the-live-lib-dem-manifesto-here-t996.htm

[cheddar-caveman]

I must admit that I was also impressed with the way Clegg presented himself and his (the Libs) points of view. I even like some of their policies:

Do NOT upgrade to the latest Trident - a massive waste of money I believe in todays world. We have a huge arsenal of subs equipped with the older, multi-head cruise missiles and they are perfectly adequate for our defence. The Yanks will take care of the rest of the world!

Retain the hunting ban - not a BIG issue but one that I strongly believe in.

Pull us out of Iraq, now. Let them sort themselves out. No matter how long we stay there, as soon as we leave there will be a power struggle and another Sadam will come to power. They are NOT democratic people, they are tribal, like the majority of the Arab world.

Pull us out of Afghanistan. Again, let them sort themselves out.

With the multi billions these options will save, we can restructure our own security so that we can keep terrorism out.

I'm beginning to see the Libs in a very different light. Just a bit worried about their taxation policies.

[Hugh]

You have more or less covered every thing I believe CC. Nick as already won my eldest sons vote and I am giving him some serious thought Have to see how he comes through the next debate when the other pair turn on him should be interesting.

[Hells Granny]

So far I am really liking Nick Clegg's debating style.

Cheers, HG

[cheddar-caveman]

There is no doubt that his debating style was well above those of the other two. However, that does not mean that we should elect him based on that! It is the policies of the parties that we should be concentrating on.

There are policies in all three parties (even four if you count the BNP) that I like and the ideal would be a coalition of all four parties, but that won't happen. We therefore have to chose the one that most meets our needs and aspirations, and that usually means sticking with the same party.

One of the policies I really like is that am MP only serves for the duration of that parliament and then have to be re elected at the next election. That would stop fat cats like Heathcoat Amory just sitting there for more than 20 years and there's nothing one can do to oust him! Very frustrating

[Papaumau]

It's for those precise points that I provided a link to the Liberal Democrat  video-vewer on my own site.

It is not often easy to pick the bones of manifestos as they are sometimes presented in ways that make them hard to tie down. That is why I was so impressed by the way that the video-viewer display of the main points was set out.

The really clever bit about it was the way that one could pick any three of the eight subjects and Nick Clegg would talk about these choices for a short time. The choice of triple-groupings was left to the person who was viewing the video.

( CC....I note that you redirected me to this response of yours about the policies of the Liberal Democrats when in fact I was asking about your views about Nick Clegg as a man and a debater in the other piece ).

Here is that link again: http://rippedoffbritain.forumotion.net/the-off-topic-chat-lounge-f6/view-the-live-lib-dem-manifesto-here-t996.htm