British Political Party Commits Suicide; News at Eleven

The British third party, the Liberal Democrats or Lib Dem’s for short took their case to the polls in British mid-terms elections yesterday, and the people showed them the door.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/av/poll-bloodbath-for-lib-dems-2279970.html

Britain has a Parliamentary form of government in which the majority party forms a government, takes cabinet positions and rules as the party leader becomes Prime Minister.  In the last election, with three major parties contending for seats no party won a majority.  The third party, the Lib Dem’s joined the Conservatives in a coalition government despite the fact that the governing philosophy of the Conservatives was in strong opposition to the philosophy of the Liberal Democrats.

As an incentive, the Lib Dem party had its leader become Deputy Prime Minister, were given some minor cabinet positions,  and most importantly the Conservatives promised a referendum on a measure to change the voting procedure so that it would be more favorable for third parties.  Of course, the Conservatives also said they were opposed to such a change, and would campaign against it, which they did.

In yesterday’s election the change in voting failed miserably, and voters also voted massively against the Liberal Democrat party.  Why?  Because they viewed the party as having sold out, gone against their principles to gain a seat in the coalition.  If the trend continues, the Lib Dem party will slowly fade away, with a few remnants left to remind the rest of us that voters may be stupid but they are not that stupid.