Comments on: Can you think of a better name for the Liberal Democrats?

By: mikestallard

mikestallard — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 05:56:48 +0000

Open Europe, day by day, tells the story of how the Irish are reacting to having their veto overruled. The major party (Fine Gael – hope I’ve spelled it right!) seems to be firmly against accepting the treaty by pushing it through the Dail.
Meanwhile the Czechs are muttering – like the Poles may be, whose mouths were quickly stopped with (your) gold.
Things are not yet lost: the Lisbon treaty may be being implemented illegally, but there is a glint of hope on the horizon.

By: Stuart Fairney

Stuart Fairney — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 05:34:30 +0000

Very clever use of English, if I may say so.

By: Basil Brown

Basil Brown — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:25:21 +0000

Illiberal Dupe-o-crats.

But, with the normalisation of Doublespeak, we’d perhaps be better orf with the Regressive Authoritarian Tendency.

By: Cliff

Cliff — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:07:07 +0000

How about leader of the Conservative Party or just Prime minister!!
At least John Redwood is a real Conservative.

By: Blue

Blue — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:10:42 +0000

Blueon – agreed, the LibDems flip-flop all over the place. However, a referendum on whether or not we are in or out of the EU is better than no referendum at all.

Although, given that the FlipFlops reneged on their manifesto pledge to hold a referendum on the ConTreaty, how can we be expected to believe that they would hold an in/out referendum should they ever come to power. (The FlipFlops might well become THE party of opposition in 2010).

But the same holds true for all mainstream parties – how can we be confident that any of them will hold true to their manifesto pledges?

By: StevenL

StevenL — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:06:01 +0000

the Patchwork Redistributive Idealist Conveyors of Kneejerk Solutions party.

By: Francis Irving

Francis Irving — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:05:04 +0000

This same thing frustrates me about some wings of the Conservative party. I thought the point was to conserve – conserve the economy, and our way of life.

Margaret Thatcher (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=108237) and David Cameron seem to get it a bit, but why is there still anyone in this conserving party in denial that emitting carbon is going to ruin our businesses?

By: Blue

Blue — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:31:45 +0000

Thanks for your reply. However, the Conservatives reneged on their pledge to withdraw from the EPP, and to date, Cameron has not offered to give us a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty (to repeal it), if it is ratified by this government.

As others have pointed out, most referendums have been retrospective – i.e., implemented after the ratification of treaties, so there really is no excuse for Cameron not offering a post-ratification Lisbon Treaty repeal referendum.

By: adam

adam — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:38:25 +0000

I like the federalist reference, perhaps with the added flair of mocking the lefts past attempts to sound legitimate ie democratic peoples republic of North Korea.

How about
The European Peoples Movement for Sustainable Federalism

or just
The Monster Raving Tantrum Party.

By: Roger Thornhill

Roger Thornhill — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:28:03 +0000

Lets not beat about the bush – “Illiberal Authoritarians”, “Disingenuous Bandwagon-jumpers” or “EU(bit left out-ed) Federasts” will do.

By: Eddie Allen

Eddie Allen — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:15:54 +0000

The Yellow Belly Party sums it up for LibDems.
Colour scheme is already in place too.

Simon:
You make a good point regarding George Osborne speaking with DEMOS which also has links with Common Purpose incidentally.

Certainly no MP who’s fully all there would not be aware of this attachment along with the implication of the conspiracy you relate to as being possible. I believe this is why people generally feel it could be more of the same, and why clear distinctive policy should be given on the European question by David Cameron now if people are to feel they can be freed from a dilemma which begs the question whether real politics and real democracy has not already been replaced by “think tanks” and persuasive lobbyists such as DEMOS and Common Purpose.

Many people I communicate with feel the way you’re saying they do and I think unless Tory policy can convince them then the feeling many have that the system is held in a grip by the unelected, will undountedly remain the case whether or not this is represented in the polls. Incidentally, there is a mass of non-voters and apathetic voters which could be switched on if they felt someone was really rooting for them in a distinctly different way.

Liberals and Labour are ALL for us being IN Europe.
Conservatives are IN but seeking a lone negotiation, which isn’t really possible to do. It must say we’re not accepting the Lisbon Treaty, we’ll withdraw or move to EFTA. This is what people want.

For my money, the Conservative Party should simply bring a policy forward to say We will join EFTA and roll back the Treaties including Lisbon. That would then be IN but not controlled by Europe. If they wanted to do this then they would have done it by now instead of talking with “think tanks”.

By: norm

norm — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:00:50 +0000

There are plenty of parties worldwide that do this, so instead of changing to what they are, perhaps it should be changed to something that makes it more obvious that it’s a lie.
eg. The Peoples Democratic and Liberation Party.

I’m not sure why people think Green means something to do with the environment and not green with envy – I think they should make that clearer.

By: Letters From A Tory

Letters From A Tory — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 08:36:08 +0000

Un-Lib Un-Dem isn’t very catchy, but hopefully my point is made.

http://lettersfromatory.wordpress.com

By: David

David — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 08:36:01 +0000

Do try and keep up John, this line has been done loads of times, and wasn’t funny the first time. I think we should think of a new name for John Redwood, he is neither a wood nor a red.

By: tim holden

tim holden — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 08:22:47 +0000

The Essential Thirdocrats.

By: Keith

Keith — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 08:10:53 +0000

Blueon 14 Sep 2008 at 9:09 pm

At least the LibDems are promising a referendum on whether or not we should remain within the EU. The Tories are hedging their bets as to whether to offer a referendum at all, depending on the outcome of the Irish coersion initiative by the EU bully boys.

Would this be the same LibDem party which voted against a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty?

By: mikestallard

mikestallard — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 06:42:14 +0000

In the 1920s Adolf Hitler was deeply ridiculous. It was only after Wall Street in 1929 and the crash that followed in the 1930s that he came to prominence.
Also, politicians were held in disrepute because they seemed to be people who were in it for themselves, who did not care for the traditional values of the German Folk.

We are on the brink, perhaps of a similar depression.
In this very blog, and elsewhere, there is a growing frustration with politicians. (See Simon above, for instance, or Blue below.)

This is the classic recipe for racist militarism.

reply: I am glad to say I see no evidence that the British public wish to go in such an unpleasant direction.

By: Snaresbrook Owl

Snaresbrook Owl — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 06:18:31 +0000

John Freeborn has the right idea, but I would extend his suggestion to the “European Federalist Party.”

It would open a few ideas,particularly in the South West.

By: Stuart Fairney

Stuart Fairney — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 06:00:20 +0000

What about

“Federal united chameleon kollective”

It sounds vaguely 21st century and European and sums them up really well. What ever environment they find themselves in, that’s the colour they turn, they are vaguely collectivist socialists at heart and anything coming out of Europe must by default be good and better than anything we could think of. Oh and Clegg-over is this week’s leader….

By: David Cooper

David Cooper — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 02:35:23 +0000

In the days of the Lib-Lab Pact in the late seventies, legend has it that one Tory backbencher reacted to a narrow Government victory in the Commons – only enabled by support from the Ulster Unionists alongside the Liberals – by denouncing the “unholy alliance of Enoch and the eunuchs”. (Any idea who that was, John?) Perhaps this may provide an answer to your question, reflecting at the same time the new name for what was then the European Economic Community: “the EUnuchs”.