Lib Dems' policies don't stand up to scrutiny.
A curious feature of the local Lib Dem candidate's literature and campaign is his avoidance of any mention of the Lib Dems' national policies. He is essentially campaigning as a local Green candidate as if he were running for election to Hounslow Council and not to the House of Commons. But of course he is runing for election to Hounslow Council as well !Now that we know a little more about the Lib Dems' national policies (or lack of them), maybe we can understand why:To paraphrase Harold Macmillan: the Liberal Democrtas have some good policies and some original ones but the trouble is that the good policies are stolen from the other parties and the original ones are simply barmy or unaffordable.For example, how can the Lib Dems take everyone earning less than £10,000 a year out of the income tax net when the cost of this will be £17 billion and Britain is Broke ? It is a nice idea but unaffordable at the present time.The Lib Dems have advocated an amnesty for over 600,000 illegal immigrants at a time when all parties agree that the country is struggling to cope with the millions of legal immigrants who have come into the country since Labour opened the gates in 1997 ?Why did Nick Clegg say that 80% of immgrants come from the EU when in fact the true figure is nearer 40% ?Lib Dems like Labour voted for the Treaty of Lisbon without honouring their pledges to hold a referendum on such an important issue. The Lib Dems, like Labour, believe in high taxes and high state spending and have no credible plans to cut the deficit. The Lib Dems are long term supporters of Britain joining the euro.This is a very unpopular policy the Lib Dems try to avoid mentioning. If this policy were implemented, Britain would lose control of its monetary policy and ultimately its fiscal and taxation policies and become a mere province of the Federal European Union. If this Lib Dem policy were implemented, it would make Britain partially responsible for the debts of Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy and all of the euro zone, make British exports more expensive and cost hundreds of thousands of British jobs. The Lib Dems policies to eliminate bonuses for directors and limit bonuses for emplyees to £2500 would destroy the leading position of the City of London in world banking and finance and cost hundreds of thousands of British jobs. The Lib Dems advocate higher taxes on air travel and air freight. The Lib Dems advocate road pricing which would price poor people off the roads and be unfair on people in rural areas. The hugely expensive CCTV network required for road pricing would threaten civil liberties. The Lib Dems have no experience of Government as there has not been a Liberal Government for nearly one hundred years. The Lib Dems are deeply divided on many policy issues. There are big differences between Left and Right of the Party and between Parliamentary Party and the membership.The Lib Dems lack credible policies on the economy, the national debt, national security, defence, energy, law and order, education and the NHS. It simply doesn't make sense to vote Lib Dem.The Financial Times has endorsed the Conservatives for the first time since 1987. That makes sense.
David Giles ● 5579d5 Comments