“In fact Nick Clegg is thought of as to the right of most Libdem members.”

STOP PRESS: Large ursine mammal spotted heading into forest with roll of Andrex under its arm.

That’s not telling us we didn’t already know, is it?

The majority of Lib Dems are lefties – but they are _liberal_ first, and were put off Labour by things like detention without trial, the Digital Economy Act, Iraq, etc.

If Labour tack in a more liberal direction then they will pick up more of the core Lib Dems – which is what the SNP did in Scotland.

I told you so.

Recap: this editorial in the British Medical Journal on 21 January 2011:

“What do you call a government that embarks on the biggest upheaval of the NHS in its 63 year history, at breakneck speed, while simultaneously trying to make unprecedented financial savings? The politically correct answer has got to be: mad. . . ”
http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.d408.full

Evidently, most LibDem members agree with the editors of the BMJ.

Where does all this leave Paul Burstow, the LibDem MP and minister of state in the department of Health?

Does it matter to Libdem Ministers what the members think. It didn’t under Labour.

“Does it matter to Libdem Ministers what the members think. It didn’t under Labour.”

C’mon. The LibDems keep claiming they are more democratic than the other mainstream parties in the ways they make party policy decisions.

Besides, whenever were the workings of how Labour governments did or didn’t do things supposed to serve as mandatory guidelines for the LibDems? In Sutton, which is Burstow’s constituency, the LibDems endlessly pour out that the Labour Party doesn’t count and the only effective choice that local voters have is between the LibDems and the Conservatives.

There is something in that call: the local Conservatives are mostly horrible or daft and leading members of the diminishingly small Labour goup on the local council gained a series of criminal convictions – for smuggling and then for corruption in public office, at the last count – I joke not. At the general election last year, Burstow’s Conservative opponent reportedly believed that those with same-sex inclinations should be cured by exorcism. Having lost out at the election, she was promptly appointed a Special Adviser to IDS in the Department of Work and Pensions.

Local voters really have little real choice. IMO Burstow’s personal recipe for re-election is to present himself as a nicer Conservative whom saner local Conservatives can safely vote for.

Lib Dems: For those of us who are batting for either the unions nor the rich!

These news reports reflect my view of politicians too:

“Estate agents and politicians among least trusted professions”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5085369/Estate-agents-and-politicians-among-least-trusted-professions.html

“More than half of MPs guilty of over-claiming expenses”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/7161198/More-than-half-of-MPs-guilty-of-over-claiming-expenses.html

“A plague of politicians: There are 30,000 and they cost you £500m every year”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1199388/Taxpayers-pay-500m-year-29-000-politicians.html

That figure of 30,000 compares with an electorate in Britain of 44 million. On the evidence, I seriously doubt that we get good and honest value for money. Especially when I read assessments of the proposed NHS reforms such as this:
Andrew Lansley’s NHS reforms are unworkable, says review chief
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/may/13/andrew-lansley-nhs-reforms-unworkable