Polly Toynbee: vote Liberal Democrat

Things are indeed achanging in the Guardian Media Group. Sunday saw The Observer unequivocally urge its readers to vote Liberal Democrat for the first time.

And now Polly Toynbee is urging a vote for the Liberal Democrats in the European elections and in many local elections too:

Throw out bad councils, and vote for Lib Dems in Europe…
The most consistently wise party on Europe, [the Lib Dems] never flirted with Tory press populism, but that principled stand came at a high price. On the economy or crime co-operation, “stronger together, poorer apart” is a good Lib Dem pro-EU slogan. They best deserve the vote of every pro-European on Thursday…

It is bad for local government when councils are voted in or out regardless of quality, and bad too when virtually all councils are of one colour. It should take no nose pegs to vote in good councils and throw out bad ones. But local voters insist on using local votes to throw stones at national parties. So we look set for Conservative hegemony locally and in Westminster and European parliaments. To avoid that, vote whichever decent party locally can best hold the floodgates against a blue wipeout.