First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win — Mahatma Ghandi.
This seems to sum up the experience of the Liberal Democrats in respect of the two old parties so far. At the outset of the election campaign, they thought they could ignore Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems – the “third” party, the fringe, unimportant, why bother?
Then came the ridicule, as if this upstart party could presume to be taken seriously.
Then, after the first debate, when the electorate were able to hear the party’s position and Nick’s voice on an equal footing with the others came the attacks, mostly from the Tory attack dog newspapers, the odious Mail, Express, Sun and Times. The Sun even censored a poll that showed “too much” support for the Lib Dems
So, what’s the next stage?
For the Liberal Democrats, winning the popular vote is a real prospect now in a way that would have been unthinkable only a month ago. Sadly, because of our broken electoral system, having the largest block of seats in the Commons is still unthinkable after this election.
Labour and Conservative attacks have failed to burst Nick Clegg’s bubble
If the surge in Liberal Democrat support were a blip, the polls would have “reset” themselves by now but they still essentially show the Lib Dems as being neck-and-neck with the Tories with Labour trailing in third. The two old parties are scared of the Lib Dems because they are scared of the will of the people actually being heard.
David Cameron is so determined that people should not truly have a say in who governs them that he is scaremongering about the possibility of a hung parliament. It is imperative that the voting system be changed after this election and before the next to a Single Transferable Vote system (see the Lib Dem manifesto, pages 87-88).
