shinydan

I am a liberal, and a card-carrying member of the Liberal Democrats. This hasn't been a comfortable thing to be, for nearly a year now, and I've been thinking about it a lot. Thankfully, I've worked out why that is. Unlike many of my friends here in the north-west, I don't automatically think that all Conservatives are vile.

Quite a few of them are, mind you. When I was living in the south, I've met Tories who flatly refused to call Tiger Woods by his name, instead choosing some racist epithet or other. I've met people whose primary concern about the opening of a centre for asylum-seekers within two miles of their house was the potential impact on the price of their house, even though they had no intention to sell up. Public services in my former home-town are still, at best, dubious, because the Conservatives have such a headlock on the council that there is very little pressure to change anything. When the Lib Dems won a by-election there, last year, I was stunned.

But there are many exceptions to this litany of bile. I know quite a lot of very nice people, who didn't hate anyone in particular based on who they were, but wouldn't be caught voting for anyone but the Tories because of the things Labour did, when they got into power. The Winter Of Discontent. The Second Iraq War. Tax & Spend - Labour governments seem to have a habit of doing things which incur Dangerous Capitalisations. Naturally, they tend to ignore the financial collapses and illegal US-supporting military raids that took place under the watches of Thatcher & Major, but that's just human nature. Sometimes, and even I find this hard to believe occasionally, the Tories act like misguided but worthy opponents, people who I disagree with on principle and practice but who genuinely have the country's best interests at heart. I believe this to be the basis on which the current Coalition government is operating.

There weren't a lot of Labourites in my old neck of the woods, but I tended to assume that they shared many of those same, positive characteristics. After moving to Manchester, though, and working with various lovely Liberal Democrats up here, I began to have a different view. Labour once relied on union power in the workplace, acting as a counterbalance to corporate and managerial control; socialist redistribution of wealth, to benefit the nation and to act as a safety net for the unlucky; and, under no circumstances, ever agreeing with the Tories on anything, except perhaps the occasional war.

But things are different now. Unions have become, outside of their relationship with the Labour Party as a bloc, a largely ineffectual rump. I wish it weren't so, but where were the union officers in all the "UK call centres" that I've worked in? Socialism has been consigned to the distant past. All the party, as a whole, seems to have left is anger and hatred of all things Tory, and all things associated with them. Which includes Nick Clegg, Vince Cable, and (in a tiny way) me.

I am not a Tory. I believe that some industries are better off in private hands, and that some are better off held in governmental trust, because that way the quality of the services they provide are focused on, as opposed to simple profit. I wholeheartedly believe in properly funding the NHS - although I'd rather see more nurses hired than administrators. I believe in education, free for all, adults and children alike. More than ever, I think that our benefits system is broken and under-resourced, and should be repaired so that it is fit for purpose. Having anyone other than a fully trained medical professional assess one's fitness to work does not help anyone's physical, mental or emotional health, and it does not ultimately save any money at all.

Would I vote for the Lib Dems again, in support of those ideals? Without a doubt. Would I persuade other people to vote Liberal again? Hell yes. Am I ashamed of any of that? No. Not any more.