Political

Ah bless, The Guardian is missing us already

The Guardian editorial on the Lib Dems

The Guardian‘s editorial:

The Lib Dems were frequently a moderating, and on occasion a truly positive, force within the coalition. Even in social security, a field in which they ultimately proved disappointingly willing to fold, they postponed the serious Conservative assault for a couple of years. On the core liberal territory they proved more determined – defending human rights, seeing off the snooper’s charter and rallying to defend equality laws. It has taken precisely one week of majority Conservative government to remind Britain why, in the absence of a liberal party, one would have to be invented – and indeed, why one will now have to be reinvented and rebuilt…

Even if Labour were not as bewildered as it is right now, it could not be relied on to do the same. It is just as often authoritarian as it is libertarian, and – with the impressive exception of the early Blair years – it has been constitutionally conservative through much of its history. Anyone concerned for liberty must hope that either Tim Farron or Norman Lamb, the two men vying for the dubious pleasure of taking over from Mr Clegg, will prove able to rebuild something from the ruins he leaves behind.

For some examples of what used to be blocked by the Liberal Democrats, see 20 extreme Tory policies the Lib Dems blocked.

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