The Liberal Democrat Manifesto

Realistically any government formed after the election in 2019 is going to be either Conservative, Labour, or some kind of coalition where one of them is the senior partner.  I have been consciously ignoring the election campaign so I don't know what the media narrative is about the likely outcome, but last time I checked in the Tories were on course to win big and the odd snippet I've been unable to avoid suggests that this is still the case.  I haven't seen anything on the ground that suggests much different either, but the Lib Dems do seem to be doing better in the poster stakes than they did in 2017.  From where I am in the heart of Tory country this suggests that there might be some majorities that will be a bit lower than usual, but it doesn't feel like a revolution yet.


Nonetheless given that I am not happy with Labour and I am totally horrified by the Tories right now I thought I'd give their manifesto a look.  I don't think I've ever read one of theirs before so this is a first.  First reaction is to the size.  It is just a squeak under the length of the Labour one and way longer than the Conservative one.  That's a good start.  It looks like they've taken the manifesto writing process seriously, so they are already a point up on the Tories in my book.

The other thing that gets my support is the prominent headline right at the start about stopping Brexit.  It's a damaging policy and it is troubling that the Conservatives are claiming that they are going to implement it in a particularly damaging way.  Labour's policy is much better but still risks leaving albeit with a further chance to stop it.  So on the issue that is most important to me at this election the Lib Dems have the policy I would like to see enacted.

I can only skim read the manifesto, I don't have time to read it in detail like I have the other two.  What leaps out?  Well there is no ambiguity on Brexit.  There is no need for a detailed plan of course, we'd just revert to the status quo.  So that's good.  I realise that this is a plan that isn't politically possible at the moment, but of course if they Lib Dems had just won an election on this promise the political situation would be very different.

There isn't much else eye catching, but there are a few things that I found quite easy on the eye.  Coming from the coast and living in the country I was pleased to see a section devoted to the problems of these areas.  Just after this is a suggestion for a preventative programme for youth violence.  There's a lot that can go wrong with schemes of this nature, but are outstandingly good investments if they work well.   This is just the sort of thing that the Conservatives don't do and is a good argument for why voting Lib Dem isn't just a softer form of Toryism.  They have their own distinct set of values.

I am glad that they've switched their proportional representation proposal from the blood awful alternative vote to the much more practical single transferable vote, but not to my preference for the additional member system as currently used for Holyrood. 

So on the whole I like the Lib Dem offer and would be happy to vote for it