Beyond the fact it allows the Tories in power and puts
I voted Liberal Democrats. I did it for 2 reasons – I voted for them to keep the Tories out and I voted for them because I agreed with them. I voted for them because I believed we shared many of the same values, the same principles, the same goals, the same ideals. I thought we were reading from the same page.
I don’t read from the same page as the Tories. We’re not even reading the same book. In fact, I’m reading form a nifty little e-reader and they’re reading runes hacked into a lump of rock, possibly carried down from a mountain by an old guy who wishes deity would invest in some paper already so he didn’t have to carry these huge blocks of stone.
You cannot, simply cannot, reconcile my position and the Tory position. And I thought the Lib Dems were close to my view.
Obviously, in politics, there is a degree of give and take, a degree of dealing, nose holding and meeting-half-waying. You expect that. But at the same time there have to be limits. Obviously a lot will depend on implementation. The Lib Dems could simply sit there, force through their agenda on threat of withdrawing (but even then, tactically, I think Labour would have been the better choice because they would need the Lib Dems more) while blocking everything the Tories propose with insidious cackling. It could. But I don’t see it.
Short of that, the Lib Dems forming a coalition with the Tories will be supporting policies and positions that I thought – when I voted for them – were opposite. It’s like watching a group of vegans going to work in an abbatoir. A veal abbatoir. Run by sadists with rusty knives. That makes sausages.
Ultimately, I am disappointed and angered by the Lib Dems because this isn’t the face they presented to me when I put my cross next to their name. This is a hell of a long way from the face they showed me. And while a lot of that is politics as usual – this is a long way from the usual expected betrayals.