- Target:
- The Liberal Democrat Party Leadership
- Region:
- United Kingdom
A coalition is when two or more parties in government work together, either because of similar ideology or to achieve an elective majority, theoretically reaching compromises on important subjects to achieve a roughly even legislative record (issue #1 goes to party A, issue #2 goes to party B in exchange. It's not ideal, but both parties get something they want).
This coalition fails in both of those regards.
The Lib-Dems do not, and should not, have even a remotely similar political ideology to the Conservative Party. Similarly, the Tories have little to nothing in common with the Lib-Dems, and compromises on major issues have been non-existent. Instead, only a series of humiliating concessions have been made, and the Prime Minister has seen fit to lend his weight to sabotaging even these, as has been made clear with the referendum.
This is not a coalition, it is a Tory government masquerading as a coalition, pinning the blame for their actions on the Liberal Democrats whilst slowly eating their electoral base.
It is a state of affairs that cannot continue, and thus the Liberal Democrats must salvage what is left of their reputation and leave this ship of government before they are nailed to the mast. They do not deserve the criticisms aimed at them, and if they are to avoid decimation at the next election they must realise their mistake early, pull out, and assume a campaign of coordinated blocking of the government's supposed-reforms until concessions are made on major points of Lib-Dem policy and tangible results are produced as a result.
We, the undersigned, call on the Liberal Democrats to be true to the spirit of the people who voted them in, and sit in opposition to the Conservative Party and their battery of right-wing policies. Power is nothing without ethics, and the Tory Prime Minister demands too much of the Liberals whilst providing nothing in return but thinly-coated treachery and political scapegoatism.
The Liberal Democrats should withdraw immediately from the government, refraining from permanent coalition with either of the other two major parties, and only vote with the Prime Minister for such issues as already reflect the ideology of the Liberal Democrats as laid down in their manifesto. Negotiable issues should not include major policy points, and those that are conceded should be used to further the primary goals of the party.
Above all, the Liberal Democrats should retain their fidelity, and never again allow power to cloud their sense of right and wrong.
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The End Lib-Dem cooperation with the Coalition petition to The Liberal Democrat Party Leadership was written by Rory S. Croft and is in the category Politics at GoPetition.