Day 3413: Bloodied But Unbowed, the Battle Goes on - update Have Your Say

Friday:


First let's get this out of our system:

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Right… HUG Daddy, and…

NOW is time that our Four Principles were prepared for.

Captain Clegg has stuck to his word and made clear that the Party with more votes and more seats - that's the Conservatories - should have first TRY at forming a Government.

The Liberal Democrats should NOT go into a Lib/Con coalition. But we should seek to negotiate a "comfort and supply" deal on the following conditions:

1. Fair Taxes

There should IMMEDIATELY be formed an all-Party economy committee to conduct a full spending review.

NO budget until after we all know what the position really is. That puts a PAUSE on OUR tax cuts plans and THEIR spending cuts plans. Sorry. But we must put the National interest first.

Internal Conservatory feuding over who is to "blame" for their election campaign may cost Master Oboe his political head. Let's just say we shouldn't stand in the way of that.

2. Fair Jobs

We need to get the banks lending again. We should be able to agree on THAT.

3. Fair Start in Education

Mr David Laws and Mr Michael Borogrove to agree to work together in principle to develop a new settlement for schools that will try to combine the best elephants elements of the Liberal Democrats' pupil premium and the Conservatories' policy of giving more power back to parents. Both Parties look to the Swedish model, so differences may - MAY - be bridgeable.

4. Fair Politics

Agreement for government time for a Liberal Democrat sponsored Bill, which the Conservatories will be free to oppose in Parliament, to reform Parliament and elections.

Even the Conservatories must admit that our political system is BROKEN. All we can ask is that they let us put the CASE, first to Parliament, and then to the people in a referendum.

We always said we would have to make our case to the people of Great Britain; if the Conservatories are so sure of the case for the status quo, then they should have no FEAR of letting us ask the question.

I would REALLY REALLY REALLY rather that the case for Fair Votes had not had to be made by the Liberal Democrats GAINING in votes and STILL losing in seats, and losing so many good - no, so many GREAT - MPs.

But nevertheless, with people queuing to vote, being DENIED the vote, crying out for change and SEEING the system THWART that, it is now undeniable that this question MUST be put.

Update:

What should the party do next? Have your say by 2pm on Saturday

On Saturday afternoon the party's Federal Executive is meeting to discuss how the party should handle the Parliamentary situation. There's no pre-set, universally supported answer to this so the FE's discussion is going to be meaningful and important - which means that if you want to influence what the party does, now is the time to let the FE know.

Because many members of the Federal Executive are scattered around the country - sleeping, travelling back from election counts, making their way to London and so on - the FE members may be hard to get hold of and many will not necessarily be checking their emails frequently.

Therefore, in order to ensure that people have a chance to send in a view that will be read before the meeting, we've agreed with the Party President Ros Scott a special email address - balancedparliament@libdemvoice.org which can be used to email in your
views. A member of staff will collate all the messages and make sure that they are drawn to the attention of Ros and also reported to the members of the FE in time for their discussion.

A few tips when emailing this address:

- Given the pressures of time, short and concise messages are likely to be more effective than 12 pages essays

- As with letter writing or lobbying more generally, saying in full who you are and where you're from is likely to add to the impact of the message

- Please send your message as soon as possible

.