Monday, January 23, 2006







Another day, another embarrassment.


The events of the last few weeks have been a shocking series of blows to the Liberal Democrats - a political party far more at home dishing the dirt than receiving it.

Liberal Democrats are rightly embarrassed and humiliated by a string of alarming disclosures that reveal what many involved in Westminster have known for years, that the Party has just as many problems with some of it's MP's as any the other party.

Were it not for the fact that the Lib Dems have made such a meal out of the problems suffered by various Conservative MP's in the past (including Mark Oatens predecessor in Winchester and Adrian Sanders' in Torbay) their own current difficulties wouldn't amount to much beyond the personal family tragedies they involve.

But the fact is Lib Dems consistantly promoted themselves during the 1990's as being somehow not like the (mostly Conservative) MP's they were trying to replace. They endlessly criticised each and every target Conservative MP for any and every personal difficulty or salacious press story; as we know only too well in Torbay, and happily mopped up the votes on offer from an electorate who became disaffected as a result.

Well that was their choice, but Liberal Democrats need to remember the old saying - "He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword."

MP's are a cross section of society and represent in their midst all the failings and weaknesses that Mankind possesses.

Lib Dems are no better nor worse in this regard than the rest of us; maybe a few of their activists ought to remember that if future and start to fight and win votes on their policy, not on personality.






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